qiliTol- 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATIC. 



217 



W.H di 'ie law ol" nations the e.,n- 



.-i!>er that had a right to say exactly 



what government Should be admini-tered over 

 them .*: by them, keeping always within tin- 

 law of nations. The conqueror h.-id a right 

 .tend his own laws o\vr t!io-e cun- 



agony, t h< d \ ing groans which have bn borne 



to us by ererj Southern breeze, from dying and 

 murdered \ieli: 



And now we are told we must not hasten 

 this matter. I am not for hastening it undid v ; 

 but I am for making one more effort to pro- 



. .11- if no action was taken by the tect these loyal men, without regard to color, 



conqueror, then by the law of nations the old 

 institutions were permitted to run on for the 

 purpose of administering the local laws until 

 such time as the conquering party should net. 

 I have merely stated the condition of those 

 States, according to the well-known principles 

 of the law of nations. There having been no 

 action on the part of the conqueror, the law of 

 nations gave the institutions then existing that 

 kind of power, for domestic administration, 

 which is exercised by every conquered province 

 until the conqueror provides for a better gov- 

 ernment. 



" The reason why no governments have been 

 provided, and they have been permitted to go 



from the cruelties of anarchy, from persecutions 

 by the malignant, from vengeance visited upon 

 them on our account. If \\e fail to do it, and 

 to do it effectually, wo should In- responsible to 

 the civilized world for, I think, the grossest 

 neglect of duty that ever a great nation was 

 guilty of before to humanity. 



"Now, sir, with these few remarks, I will 

 say one word as to what the bill is. This bill 

 provides the ten disorganized States shall bo 

 divided into five military districts, and that the 

 commander of the Army shall take charge of 

 them through his lieutenants as governors, or 

 you may call them commandants if you choose, 

 not below the grade of brigadiers, who shall 



on under the general law of nations, is because have the general supervision of the peace, quiet, 



there has been difficulty in harmonizing the 

 councils of the dominant party. The execu- 

 tive department has attempted to enact new 

 laws, to establish new regulations, to authorize 

 the conquered territory to be represented in 

 Congress, without the action of the sovereign 

 power of the 'nation; and that sovereign power 

 has repudiated the authority which has at- 

 tempted to place States within those conquered 

 provinces, and has waited, and waited patiently 

 in the hope that some arrangement could bo 

 come to, by which there would be harmony in 

 our councils, and the kind of government ne- 

 cessary there might bo agreed upon without 

 collision. That hope has failed, and the longer 

 Congress has waited, the more pertinacious 

 seems to be the determination of the Execu- 

 tive to maintain the usurpation which estab- 

 lished those governments. And now, at this 

 late period, it has become the duty of Congress 

 to assert its right, and to do its duty in estab- 

 lishing some kind pf government for this people. 

 " For two years they have been in a state of 

 anarchy; for two years the loyal people of 

 those ten States have endured all the horrors 

 of the worst anarchy of any country. Perse- 

 cution, exile, murder have been the order of the 

 day, within all these Territories, so far as loyal 

 men were concerned, whether white or black, 

 and more especially if they happened to bo 

 black. We have seen the best men, those who 

 stood by the flag of the Union, driven from their 

 homes, and compelled to live on the cold charity 

 of a cold North. We have seen their loyal men 

 flitting about everywhere, through your cities, 

 around your doors, melancholy, depressed, hag- 

 gard, like the ghosts of the unhuried dead on 

 this side of the river Styx, and yet we have 

 borne it with exemplary patience. We have 

 been enjoying our 'ease in our inns;' and 

 while we were praising the rebel South, and 

 asking in piteous terms for mercy for that 

 people, we have been deaf to the groans, the 



and the protection of the people, loyal and dis- 

 loyal, who reside within those precincts; and 

 that to do so he may use,' as the law of nations 

 would authorize him to do, the legal tribunals 

 wherever he may deem them competent ; but 

 they are to be considered of no validity per SA, 

 of no intrinsic force, no force in consequence of 

 their origin, the question being wholly within 

 the power of the conqueror, and to remain until 

 that conqueror shall permanently supply their 

 place with something else. I will say, in brief, 

 that is the whole bill. It does not need much 

 examination. One night's rest after its read- 

 ing is enough to digest it." 



Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut, said: "Mr. 

 Speaker, I shall give my support to the bill 

 now before the House, reported by the select 

 Committee on Reconstruction, with all my 

 heart. 



"Of all the various plans which have been 

 discussed in this Hall, for the past two years, to 

 iny mind it seems the plainest, the most appro- 

 priate, the freest from constitutional objection, 

 and the best calculated to accomplish those two 

 master-aims of reconstruction. 



"1. The gathering up of the fruits of our 

 victories. 



" 2. The restoration of peace and union upon 

 the only stable basis upon which peace and 

 union can be restored liberty to all, rights for 

 all, and protection to all. 



" It begins the work of reconstruction at the 

 right end, and employs the right tools for its 

 accomplishment. It begins at the point where 

 Grant left off the work, at Appomattox Court- 

 House, and it holds those revolted communities 

 in the grasp of war until the rebellion shall 

 have laid-down its spirit, as two years ago it 

 formally laid down its arms. 



"This bill is founded upon the indisputable 

 law of nations, as affirmed by every publicist 

 from Vattel to Halleck, ancient or modern, and 

 denied by none whose word is an authority 



