240 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



Mr. Hickman, of Pennsylvania, followed : 

 " If it be asserted with any degree of authority 

 by the gentleman from Kentucky, that five hun- 

 dred thousand men will not be able to subdue 

 the rebellion in the southern disloyal States, 

 then I am for employing twice five hundred 

 thousand men, and the eighteen States of the 

 North are in favor of doing the same thing. "We 

 intend that the Constitution and the Union 

 shall be maintained ; and we intend that rebel- 

 lion, come in what shape it may, and backed by 

 what numbers it may be, shall not be enabled 

 to destroy either the one or the other. I trust 

 in God that the gentleman from Kentucky does 

 not speak even the sentiment of his own sec- 

 tion, much less the sentiment of his State ; but, 

 whether he does or does not, permit me to say 

 to him here, very frankly, that it matters not 

 to those who are engaged in this work of pres- 

 ervation whether he does or not ; for, no mat- 

 ter what their opinion may be, this Govern- 

 ment will be preserved, and the gallows will 

 eventually perform its office." 



Mr. Burnett, in answer, said : " I tell gen- 

 tlemen now, carry out the picture painted in 

 full ; carry on this war ; drench this country in 

 blood ; have your armed five hundred thousand 

 men in the field ; desolate the fair fields of both 

 sections of the country ; let the streams run 

 with blood ; let all that the gentleman from 

 Pennsylvania can desire be accomplished ; and 

 then tell me, will you, what your country is 

 worth when the finale comes? Tell me, will 

 you, what will your Government be worth 

 when you have accomplished all that you ask 

 shall be done ? Sir, when the pen of the his- 

 torian shall come to write the history of the 

 times in which we live, I tell gentlemen upon 

 this floor now, there will be a fearful account- 

 ability for some of us to render. Sir, when the 

 gentleman tells me that this war must be prose- 

 cuted, I say, go on ; you have the power ; I 

 prefer peace to war, but I am powerless here. 

 Let me remind him that when my venerable 

 colleague (Mr. Crittenden) and other southern 

 men in this House, and at the other end of the 

 Capitol, were begging you, at the last session 

 of Congress, on bended knees, and with tears 

 in our eyes, to give us something to restore 

 peace and fraternity to our common country, 

 and to stay this revolution, all those appeals 

 and entreaties were not only resisted, but treat- 

 ed with silent contempt and indignant scorn ; 

 and all propositions looking to that end were 

 voted down ; and now, by the act of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, without authority of 

 law, and in violation of the Constitution, war 

 has been inaugurated ; and here, as one of the 

 people's representatives, I boldly enter my sol- 

 emn protest against it." 



Mr. Lovejoy, of Illinois, said it was not a 

 question whether this war, or this suppression 

 of rebellion, shall be carried on till the Stars 

 and Stripes float in every place where they 

 have a right to float. 



" The question is, who is to do it ? The ques- 



tion is, shall it be done by the increase of the 

 regular army, or whether you will take these 

 patriotic volunteers, who have flocked here in 

 thousands and thousands, and let the citizen 

 soldier accomplish this, his appropriate work? 

 That is the question, and I will not allow the 

 issue to be changed. Take your men, in God's 

 name. You can have half a million or a million 

 of them ; you can have four or five hundred 

 million dollars. The people are pressing the bit 

 like a restive horse to put down this rebellion. 

 I am willing to carry on this war until, if it is 

 necessary, some future historian shall write of 

 us as Tacitus wrote of the Romans : Solitudinem 

 faciant et pacem appellant. Aye, sir, if there 

 is no other way to quell this rebellion, we will 

 make a solitude, and call it peace. And I tell 

 the gentleman from Kentucky that he need 

 not make any appeals to us about peace ; he 

 need not talk to us about the shedding of blood 

 and the burning of houses, and villages, and 

 cities. ' There is no peace to the wicked, saith 

 my God ; ' there is no peace to these rebels and 

 traitors, who have raised their hands against 

 the Government. "We will carry on this war ; 

 the people will carry it on ; the citizen soldier 

 will fight this battle. He is impatient to do it 

 now ; but we do not want certainly not now 

 to increase the regular army." 



Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, desired to vote for 

 all measures asked for to enable the Govern- 

 ment to maintain its honor and dignity, which 

 might be sanctioned by the Constitution, and by 

 any reasonable view of the necessity of the case. 

 He would heartily, zealously, gladly support 

 any honest effort to maintain the Union, and 

 reinvigorate the ties which bind these States 

 together. But he was not willing to vote for 

 more men or more money than the Administra- 

 tion asks ; more than it can fairly use ; more 

 than General Scott, who advised and controlled 

 the Administration, tells us he thinks neces- 

 sary. 



Mr. Blair, of Missouri, was of the opinion 

 that if more men should be needed after Con- 

 gress had adjourned, it was proper to put it in 

 the power of the President to call for them. 



Mr. Diven, of New York, would give the 

 President a million if half a million of men were 

 not sufficient to put down this rebellion. 



Mr. Hickman again alluded to the question 

 of subjugation of the South, and said : " I en- 

 tertain the opinion now, and I have long enter- 

 tained it, that one hundred thousand men will 

 be entirely sufficient to accomplish the restora- 

 tion of the Constitution in the seceded States ; 

 but the smaller the number of men employed, 

 the greater will be the length of time necessary 

 to accomplish the object in view. I do not see, 

 myself, that increasing the number of men will 

 necessarily increase the hazard of subjugating 

 the South. I do not myself know whether it 

 is contemplated to subjugate the South. I do 

 know, however, that it is fully contemplated to 

 force the South into submission. There can bo 

 no loyalty without submission ; and these men 





