CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



-U'J 



hnd been in the habit of looking npon them 

 not only with dcri-ion but with all tin- I- 

 of contempt which it i> possible one hiiinaii he- 

 inu r can indulge toward another, so far as tlu-ir 

 I \\as concerned and so far as tiny were 

 nied, and in communities, too, angered. 

 outraged, if you plca-e, by tho fact that all 

 men had been freed from their domi- 

 nation. That was a necessity arising out of 

 ntc-t. Thoy were so freed, and found 

 themselves and were found in that condition; 

 and why ' For the reason tliat wo were com- 

 pelled to avail ourselves of their services, in one 

 particular, and in another for tho reason that 

 we were compelled to deprive their masters of 

 the "material aid which they furnished toward 

 carrying on tho contest against us; and thus 

 we find them when arms have disappeared. 



" Now, will any man tell me that under such 

 circumstances, a great people having availed 

 themselves of that very fact, having used these 

 former slaves, having deprived the enemy of all 

 the aid which he received from them, will now 

 throw them upon the world without the slight- 

 est protection, without the slightest aid, without 

 any comfort, exposed to persecution and pros- 

 ecution in every possible shape ; and. why ? 

 Because there is no provision in the Consti- 

 tution whereby Congress is authorized to feed 

 and clothe anybody. Wo have a written Con- 

 stitution. In spite of all that the honorable Sen- 

 ator from Delaware has chosen to say, I think 

 we have a respect for it. I think in all cases we 

 have endeavored to adhere to it. There may 

 have been some cases during tho war where its 

 provisions were violated, and perhaps neces- 

 sarily violated. That comes as a matter inevi- 

 table in the course of all governments in the 

 many contingencies to which they are exposed, 

 and under circumstances for which no previous 

 provision could be" made; but I would have 

 gentlemen to reflect upon one thing, that as a 

 part of tho Constitution, written or unwritten, 

 of all governments, stand the laws of nations 

 necessarily, inevitably, from the relations which 

 all communities bear to each other, and from 

 tho contingencies to which they are exposed. 

 That being tho case, and that unwritten law of 

 nations being actually a part of our written 

 law, wo accept, as we must accept, all the con- 

 sequences which follow from it. 



" We have been plunged into a war almost, 

 if not quite, the greatest of modern times, in- 

 volving vast results. Will gentlemen undertake 

 to tell me that under such circumstances the 

 necessary results of that war, if it brings about 

 a state of things not found in our written Con- 

 stitution, are to be avoided, shunned, not no- 

 ticed in any possible way ; that our affairs as 

 connected with it are not to be closed up under 

 tho same law which governed us and govern 

 all nations while the war continued ? If so, 

 what a miserable, weak, powerless people we 

 are 1 We can "carry on a great war, but the 

 moment the clash of arms has ceased to strike 

 our ears we become utterly powerless to pro- 

 VOL. vi. 14 A 



vide for any of its necessary and inevitable re- 



-.nlts, 1" cause it is not written in tho Coi 

 tion what, wo should do in a case which 

 not he foreseen, and which the founders ol 

 Government purposely avoided foreseeing or 



ing about! They provided on p 

 principles for the emergency, but did not talk 

 of it as a thiiiL' that could possibly occur. The 

 CB would not mention in their laws the 

 crime of parricide, because they would not sup- 

 pose it was a crime that could ever be perpe- 

 trated. 



' We find ourselves in that condition, we, tho 

 Congress of the United States who have been 

 carrying on this war because after all, as part 

 of the Government, we have carried it on tho 

 gentlemen who sit opposite me, and who do not 

 agree with me in my political views and senti- 

 ments, and with whom I do not agree, giving 

 their aid to the same thing, I trust with a good 

 heart and good spirit, I trust honestly and 

 meaning all they appeared to do ; and when 

 they find us or find themselves and tho Gov- 

 ernment in this condition necessarily as an in- 

 evitable and unavoidable result of the contest 

 which they themselves have waged, the mo- 

 ment we begin to provide for what came out 

 of it they tell us, ' You are working against the 

 Constitution ; you cannot find any thing there 

 by which you can feed or clothe a man, woman, 

 or child.' That is the substance of what the 

 honorable Senator from Delaware has told us 

 to-day, and he finds particular offence in the 

 fact that occasionally you see a skin a little 

 darker than his own in the gallery. That is un- 

 constitutional too, I suppose. 



" Sir, I accept no such doctrines. Whether 

 you call it the war power or some other power, 

 the power must necessarily exist, from tho na- 

 ture of the case, somewhere, and if anywhere, 

 in us, to provide for what was one of the re- 

 sults of the contest in which we have been en- 

 gaged. All the world would cry shame upon 

 us if we did not. I know the gentlemen on 

 tho other side of the .House, and personally I 

 respect them ; we are on the best terms in tho 

 world that men can be on who do not think 

 alike ; and I would trust the honorable Senator 

 from Delaware himself if the case was put 

 upon him to decide, and he had to bear the re- 

 sponsibility of it before the world. He would 

 not dare, no, he would not wish, to avoid it. 

 Every sentiment of his heart, and every manly 

 emotion of his nature would revolt at any such 

 idea. It only shows the difference between 

 what a man wonld do himself and what for 

 party purposes he can advise others to do. 



" I have thus stated the foundation of tho 

 bill. And what have we already done ? At the 

 last session of Congress we did what, although 

 1 was not a member of Congress at the time, 

 met with my perfect approbation; we put it 

 upon the War Department to take care of these 

 people who had been a part of tho war, and an 

 essential part of the war. We recognized it as 

 connected with the military operations of the 



