238 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



Mr. Lane, of Kansas: "I desire to ask the 

 Senator a question. Should the armies of the 

 Union inarch into the slave States, and the 

 slaves themselves should get up an insurrection, 

 as I believe will be the case, and flee to the 

 armies of the Union, or march out by the roads 

 that the Union armies march in, will the Sena- 

 tor, under such circumstances, expect the peo- 

 ple of the North, or the armies of the North, to 

 become the servants of the traitors, and return 

 those slaves to their traitorous masters ? " 



Mr. Oarlile : " The gentleman is putting a 

 question to me entirely foreign to the subject ; 

 but I will answer him in the language of the 

 proclamation of the gallant general, issued to 

 the people of Virginia when his army entered 

 upon our soil: ' We come not among you, Vir- 

 ginians, to interfere with your rights of prop- 

 erty ; and should an insurrection be gotten up 

 in your midst, the iron heel of this army will 

 be yours to suppress it.' Sir, that is the lan- 

 guage of a man who loves his country, and who 

 is disposed to obey its laws and be at the head 

 of the army of deliverance as I trust in God 

 the armies of the Government of the Union will 

 be everywhere to deliver the people of the 

 States that have been silenced and intimidated ; 

 many of them driven from their homes ; and 

 those who are left behind terrified by the con- 

 duct of disloyal men in their midst. That 

 should be the name ' the army of deliverance ' 

 that should be given to the forces of the 

 United States everywhere, to protect us in our 

 rights in the Union of every and any descrip- 

 tion." 



Mr. Lane, of Kansas : " "While I think that 

 policy might be a correct one, so far as return- 

 ing slaves to the Union men is concerned, I 

 should think it highly impolitic, and in a mili- 

 tary sense highly improper, so far as the trai- 

 tors are concerned." 



Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, asked: ""What 

 would be thought if you were to march an army 

 against New York or against any of the north- 

 ern States, and to despoil their people of their 

 houses, their goods, their chattels, and their 

 lands ? "Would not the whole world look upon 

 it, and justly, too, as an overthrow of the con- 

 stitutional liberties of those people ? And yet 

 you propose to do that in the name of the Con- 

 stitution ! Professedly executing the laws and 

 maintaining the Constitution, you will destroy 

 the Constitution, you will set the laws at defi- 

 ance, and you will commit acts revolting to 

 men and to God." 



The question being taken on this amend- 

 ment, it was rejected and the bill passed. 



On the bill to authorize the President to ac- 

 cept the services of volunteers, to the number 

 of five hundred thousand, being under consid- 

 eration, Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, moved 

 to amend by striking out " five " and inserting 

 " two." He said : " As I remarked early in the 

 last session of Congress,my State having been the 

 first to adopt the Constitution and to enter the 

 Union, she would and will be the last to aban- 



don it, so I repeat now, however trite it may 

 be. "We have not a handful of secessionists or 

 disunionists in the State of Delaware. But, sir, 

 we have a people, and, as I believe, a majority 

 of our people are honestly in favor of a peaceful 

 settlement of this question, and they do believe 

 that if opportunity is allowed to the people of 

 this country, that there is love of country 

 enough, that there is patriotism enough, that 

 there is intelligence enough in the people of 

 this country, both North and South, to settle 

 this question without the bloody scenes which 

 have been portrayed here to-day by the Senator 

 from Oregon (Mr. Baker) and others. Sir, if 

 we are invited to enter upon such scenes, if 

 there is to be a war of subjugation, if fire and 

 sword are to sweep over this land, if there are 

 to be hundreds and thousands and millions of 

 fatherless children, and of widows, then I say 

 that the sentiment of my State is against such 

 a policy. 



" Mr. President, I do not profess to know as 

 much in reference to the state of the country as 

 many other gentlemen ; but I do say, that I as 

 firmly believe, as I believe that the sun shines in 

 heaven, that if this Congress would adopt those 

 propositions, maintain the integrity of the Union 

 as it now exists, and turn the Richmond Govern- 

 ment, or the Montgomery Government, over 

 to its own people, in less than four years that 

 old glorious flag which has been so eloquently 

 alluded to here to-day would float in peace over 

 every acre of American soil." 



The amendment was then rejected and the 

 bill passed. "Ayes, 34 ; noes, 4. 



On the llth of July, the bill making addi- 

 tional appropriations for the support of the army 

 was taken up, and an animated debate ensued, 

 which brought out the views of the House on 

 the conduct of the war. 



Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, regarded the 

 increase of the army at this time as very neces- 

 sary. It was not known how long the war 

 might continue. The importance of having old 

 disciplined troops as a nucleus for all new troops 

 to rally around was so obvious that it hardly 

 required any other argument. If this army be 

 found too large after this rebellion is suppressed, 

 it is very easy for Congress to repeal that law 

 and reduce the army to a peace standard. This 

 is the war standard of the army. This is the 

 standard which in the present time, having a 

 vast country to subdue, it is necessary to have. 

 "When peace is upon us, I shall, if I hap- 

 pen to be here, go as far as any others to 

 reduce the expenses by reducing the army to 

 the peace standard. But I do not think fifty 

 thousand men too large a standing army as a 

 war standard. Hence I hope this bill will pass 

 as it has been reported." 



Mr. McClernand, of Illinois, said : " All who 

 are in favor of a vigorous and successful prose- 

 cution of this war until rebellion and treason 

 shall be crushed out ; all who are in favor of 

 this and I am one of them ; all such persons 



