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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



tion must be determined by an appeal to the 

 people in the election of the next Congress. 



"The President, and the majority in both 

 Houses of Congress, were elected by the same 

 political party, the great Union party of the 

 country, which carried us so gloriously through 

 the great rebellion ; and the Federal offices of 

 the country are generally filled by members of 

 the same party, who were appointed by the 

 President, or his predecessor, Mr. Lincoln. I 

 suppose it to be true that the great majority of 

 those persons now holding office, as well as the 

 great mass of the Union party, concur with 

 Congress in the proper policy to be pursued in 

 the restoration of these rebel States. I sup- 

 pose it is feared that in this contest before the 

 people, as to which of these respective policies 

 shall prevail, the President will attempt to 

 strengthen his position by the use of his patron- 

 age, that is, that he will displace men who be- 

 lieve in and advocate the congressional policy, 

 and fill the positions with either Union men, 

 or Democrats who will advocate the policy of 

 the President. And I do not know but it is 

 feared that men now holding office, who really 

 believe with Congress, will, for fear of losing 

 their officee, profess to believe and act with 

 the President. Now, I have no knowledge 

 that the President designs any such course of 

 action ; he may or may not. 



".Now, if this amendment is adopted, will it 

 have the effect to prevent the President from 

 making changes in office for political causes? 

 If he has no such purpose or intention, then 

 there is certainly no need of such an extraordi- 

 nary provision being attached to this bill. 

 And I may be allowed to say that I am not 

 prepared to believe that he designs to do any 

 such foolish thing. But assuming that he has 

 such a wish and purpose, will the adoption of 

 such an amendment as this be likely to prevent 

 him from accomplishing it? On the other 

 hand, will it not look like daring and defying 

 him to do it, and be very likely to produce the 

 very result we desire to avoid? It is very 

 reasonable to suppose that the President would 

 feel great reluctance to remove men of his own 

 party, appointed either by himself or his mar- 

 tyred predecessor, even if they did not believe 

 in or advocate his policy. If we attempt to 

 prevent it by the use of such questionable, if 

 not unwarrantable legislation, as this amend- 

 ment proposes, is there not danger, not only 

 that he will accept the challenge, but that this 

 very amendment will be accepted by the peo- 

 ple as a sufficient justification for that course, 

 and furnish a ground for saying that Congress 

 was the aggressive party ? Situated as we are, 

 it seems to me that the adoption of this amend- 

 ment will be more likely to produce than to 

 prevent what we all hope to avoid. 



"But suppose that I am mistaken in my 

 views, and in consequence of a failure to adopt 

 this amendment, the President undertakes to 

 help his case before the people by turning good 

 Union men who believe with Congress out of 



office, and fills their places with men, eithel 

 Kepublicans or Democrats, who believe in his 

 policy, is there any such ground of alarm in 

 this as should frighten us out of our propriety, 

 and drive us to doubtful and desperate expe- 

 dients ? 



" The whole thing is founded in a mistaken 

 lack of faith in the people. This has been a 

 common error of politicians and public men 

 always, but the mistake is greater now than 

 ever before, and especially in regarding any 

 past experience of the effect and power of po- 

 litical patronage as applicable to the present 

 condition of things. 



" In former times, when the people regarded 

 politics merely as a trade by which certain men 

 obtained a living; when the issues between the 

 parties were about internal improvements, the 

 public lands, banks, tariffs, and the like, sub- 

 jects the real merits of which the masses of the 

 people really knew but little about, and cared 

 less ; when they had no real belief that the suc- 

 cess or defeat of either party would make a 

 farthing's difference with them or the country, 

 then a body of stirring, active office-holders, to 

 circulate documents, harangue the people, and 

 get out the voters, could produce a very impor- 

 tant influence upon an election. But this state 

 of things has no existence now, and no reliance 

 can be placed now upon the experience of those 

 days. For four long years we were engaged in 

 a most desperate and bloody war, which perilled 

 the very existence of the nation itself. The 

 attention of the whole country was roused and 

 was kept most painfully intent upon the causes 

 and course of the war till it ended in the over- 

 throw of the rebellion. Almost every family 

 throughout the loyal North was represented, in 

 the army of the Union by some father, or 

 brother, or son, and mourning and sorrow 

 were carried into almost every Northern homo 

 by the death of some dear relative in the army 

 by disease or on the battle-field, or the still 

 more cruel mode of starvation in prison. In 

 this way the people have come to comprehend 

 every thing pertaining to the subject as fully 

 and completely as the first statesmen in the 

 land. Nor have they, since the close of the 

 war, lost any of their interest in it, and will not 

 until the whole matter is put at rest. 



" I have heard it said here, I have read in 

 the public press, that the great anxiety of the 

 people was to have the matter settled, and get 

 all the States once more into the Union to- 

 gether. The people are anxious to have the 

 Union restored and all act again together, but 

 that is not their great anxiety. What they fear, 

 and about which they are earnestly anxious, is 

 that they should not again be admitted until it 

 is made perfectly certain that they are not 

 again to come under Southern domination, and 

 that not even by combination with their old 

 allies in the North can they again control the 

 Government. The Union people of the North 

 are not revengeful or malignant, but they can- 

 not forget their martyred brothers and sons, 01 



