CONGRESS, U. S. 



317 



man as any of you. I am a better Union man 

 than any of you. I am a Union man, and have 

 thrown "up my head no, I have not lost that 

 yet I have thrown up my hat for the cause of 

 the Union, and cheered at its success. I felt as 

 anxious for its success as any man upon this 

 floor. I look upon war as disunion. I look 

 npon continued war as actually keeping off the 

 Union to a still later period, and I scarcely be- 

 lieve that peace would accomplish a Union. 

 And surely, if any thing will, it is that sweet 

 angel of peace. She may unite the cords which 

 have been severed by the hand of war, and may 

 tie them more tightly together than ever be- 

 fore ; but if we are to have dissolution, in the 

 name of God let us have it. Let us have it, 

 and instead of having one great consolidated 

 Government, one imperious Government, one 

 splendid Government, let us at least have on this 

 continent two happy Governments. But, as I 

 said before, I look to peace as the harbinger of 

 the Union, if there is any harbinger for it. 



"Sir, the Union is dissolved, and there is a 

 gulf of blood lying between the two sections ; 

 but upon my honor, upon my soul, I repeat that 

 every drop in that gulf' is on the souls of the 

 northern people. I do not think that any can- 

 did man who looks at the history of this affair 

 can come to any other conclusion. From the be- 

 ginning of the Government, from the time of the 

 adoption of the Constitution down to the time 

 of the election of Abraham Lincoln, you have 

 been using terms of insult and terms of irrita- 

 tion, and you have been doing every thing you 

 could to bring about the very result which is 

 now upon you. Look at the history of this 

 matter. I shall not repeat it ; it is too familiar 

 and has been too often repeated. At first you 

 only cultivated the ground, but when that old 

 scold and wrangler, the worst man that ever 

 lived in this country, even not excepting Aaron 

 Burr ; when that old scold and wrangler, John 

 Quincy Adams, declared that by the war power 

 you could emancipate all the slaves and sell the 

 States which had slaves to a foreign power, that 

 was the day when you commenced to exert all 

 your powers to excite this people to rebellion. 

 Then it was, you said you would not live with 

 them, that the Government was a compact 

 with hell, and that one of the most agreeable 

 things in the world would be to part with the 

 South and slavery. That was the announce- 

 ment of your public men everywhere, that they 

 could not live with you in peace. Well, they 

 separated from you, and asked to live on terms 

 of peace with you. What did you do ? You 

 immediately howled out, 'They are traitors; 

 we will hang them all ; and when we have 

 hung them we will take all their property and 

 divide it among us.' And, sir, all this was to 

 be done, according to your great ' higher-law ' 

 apostle, William H. Seward, in the course of 

 sixty days? No doubt the* facility with which 

 he thought it could be done was a great incen- 

 tive to begin the work, especially as there were 

 Jands in the South and many other benefits tiiat 



they expected to get hold of very easily down 

 there. 



" Mr. Speaker, in the early part of this se- 

 cession movement there was a resolution 

 offered pledging men and money to carry on 

 the war. My principles were then and are 

 now against the war. I stood solitary and alone 

 in voting against that resolution, and whenever 

 a similar proposition is brought here it will 

 meet with my opposition. Not one dollar nor 

 one man, I swear by the Eternal, will I vote 

 for this infernal, this stupendous folly, more 

 stupendous than ever disgraced any civilized 

 people on the face of God's earth. If that be 

 treason, make the most of it. 



" It is the right of the commoner of England 

 to say that he will not intrust the money to 

 carry on a war to the king, who has the entire 

 war "power. I do not know that a commoner 

 of the American House of Eepresentatives ever 

 lost that right. That proposition meets with 

 my approval. If you will not make peace in 

 any other way, and if I have the casting vote 

 here against furnishing the sinews of war, you 

 shall not have them. 



" The South asks you to let her go in peace. 

 But, no; you said you would bring them into 

 subjugation. That is not done yet, and God 

 Almighty grant that it never may be. I hope that 

 you will never subjugate the South. If she is 

 to be ever again in the Union I hope it will be 

 with her own consent; and I hope that that 

 consent will be obtained by some other mode 

 than by the sword. ' If this be treason, make 

 the most of it.' I am as good a Union man as 

 you are, but we differ as to the best means of 

 preserving the Union." 



Mr. Wood, of New York, thus explained his 

 views : " I came into the Hall this morning, 

 making my appearance for the first time in 

 many days, having been confined to my bed by 

 severe sickness. I applied personally to the 

 gentleman from Ohio to know what he did 

 say, and whether I could stand up and indorse 

 the sentiments which he had uttered, or be 

 compelled to agree to a vote of censure upon 

 him. He gave me the identical paper from 

 which he made the speech which has called 

 forth this most extraordinary resolution. He 

 asked me after I had read the manuscript 

 whether I was ready to vote for his expulsion. 

 I said no. The only recognition of the south- 

 ern confederacy was this. It was presented as 

 an alternative of evils to the country. The 

 gentleman from Ohio said as the choice of alter- 

 natives he would accept recognition. That is 

 all there is of it. The language is : 



I now believe there are but two alternatives, and 

 they are either the acknowledgment of the independ- 

 ence of the South as au independent nation, or 

 their complete subjugation and extermination as a 

 people; and of these alternatives I prefer the former. 



" Sir, as a choice of evils, rather than see 

 the whole southern people exterminated, men, 

 women, and children put to the sword, he 

 w ould accept a recognition as an alternative of 



