CONGRESS, U. S. 



243 



both sides ; my own opinion is, that these sec- 

 tional Federal difficulties might have been set- 

 tled last winter : my opinion is, that the pres- 

 ent condition of affairs is due, principally, to 

 the absolute refusal of the majority in this 

 Chamber to agree to any proposition of adjust- 

 ment, as I have taken occasion to state, and 

 tried to show heretofore ; and I think to that 

 persistent and obstinate refusal, more than to 

 any other cause, is due the present condition of 

 public affairs. 



" I think, sir, that this \var is prosecuted, ac- 

 cording to the purposes of a majority of those 

 who are managing the legislation that leads to 

 its prosecution, for objects of subjugation. I 

 believe that, unless those States which have 

 seceded from the Federal Union, lay down 

 their arms and surrender at discretion, the ma- 

 jority in Congress will hear to no terms of set- 

 tlement, and that those who may attempt to 

 mediate will speak to the winds. I believe, 

 therefore, that the war, in the sense and spirit 

 entertained by these gentlemen, is a war of 

 subjugation. The eminent Senator from Ohio, 

 (Mr. Sherman,) not less conservative than a 

 majority of the organization with which he is 

 connected, went so far, in the warmth of his 

 feelings, the other day, as to declare that, un- 

 less the people of certain States in the South 

 yielded willing obedience, he would depopulate 

 them and people them over again. That I call 

 not only a war of subjugation, but a war of ex- 

 termination. 



" On the day before yesterday, I think, sir, 

 an amendment offered by the Senator from Illi- 

 nois (Mr. Trumbull) to one of the general bills 

 before the Senate, received the vote of an over- 

 whelming majority of this body, which declares 

 that any person held to service or labor, who 

 should be employed to aid the rebellion in any 

 form, should be discharged from service and la- 

 bor. These were the general vague terms of 

 that proposition. I think I have the very 

 words. 



" I consider that amendment passed by a 

 vote of the Senate, so far as the vote of this 

 Senate can go, a general act of emancipation. 

 I should like to know if those held to service or 

 labor, who are employed as agricultural laborers 

 in the South in raising cotton, in raising corn 

 and other products which are used by the mass 

 of the population, cannot readily be considered 

 by a rampant and fanatic spirit as being em- 

 ployed in aiding the rebellion. Certainly as 

 readily as every means of subsistence can be 

 cut off from that whole country by the act of 

 the Executive, approved by the" legislative de- 

 partment of the Government."' 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, followed, saying: 

 " The Senator from Kentucky and the disunion- 

 ists of the Southern States have no right to 

 come to me and say, ' you have involved your 

 country in civil war because you would not do 

 as we wanted you to do.' Because we would 

 not chantre the Constitution, because we would 

 not ingraft new provisions in it that were un- 



known to it; especially because we will not 

 disregard the popular voice at the last election, 

 we are charged with involving our country in 

 civil war. It is idle to answer this kind of ar- 

 gument. 



" Mr. President, the disunionists of the South- 

 ern States are traitors to their country ; they 

 must, and I repeat they will, be subdued. This 

 war is prosecuted for the purpose of subduing 

 those men, and compelling them to obey the 

 laws, just as you, sir, and I, are bound to do ; 

 to make them just as loyal subjects as you and 

 I now are. Because this purpose is announced 

 and declared by the resolution introduced by 

 the honorable Senator from Tennessee, we are 

 to have clamor about subjugation. I am a sub- 

 ject ; you are a subject ; there is not a Senator 

 within the sound of my voice who is not a sub- 

 ject. The Lieutenant-General is a subject, 

 the President of the United States is a subject, 

 just precisely in the same sense that we intend 

 to make all these people in the Southern States 

 subjects to the Constitution. All this clap-trap 

 about subjugation, it seems to me, ought to be 

 dismissed from the Senate. These men must 

 be subjugated to obedience to the Constitution ; 

 and when that is accomplished, then this reso- 

 lution declares our purpose to be to give them 

 all the rights conferred upon them by the Con- 

 stitution, and that the very moment the object 

 is accomplished the war shall cease. 



" In regard to the proposition offered by 

 the Senator from Illinois. (Mr. Trumbull,) I 

 have but this to say : if a slave is used by his 

 master in the actual prosecution of this war, 

 that slave ought to be freed ; the master ought 

 to forfeit all right to him. Does the Senator 

 deny this ? If a slave is used by his master to 

 accomplish the work of treason I mean ac- 

 tively, according to the language of that bill 

 ought that master still to own the labor of that 

 slave ? Certainly not ; and yet it seems to me, 

 in declaring this principle, we do not interfere 

 at all in the slightest degree with the relations 

 of master and slave, except where the master 

 uses that slave as an instrument to erect barri- 

 cades to accomplish treason. As a matter of 

 course, then, he ought to lose his right to the 

 slave all claim, ownership, or control over 

 bun. There is no objection to this doctrine." 



The debate was continued by Mr. Breckin- 

 ridge, to whom Mr. Doolittle, of "Wisconsin, 

 replied : " The Senator charges upon the ma- 

 jority, or those representing the majority upon 

 this floor, the responsibility of involving the 

 country in civil war. He charges that last 

 winter, if the majority had yielded to the de- 

 mands of the minority, the country would now 

 be at peace. Sir, what were those demands 

 made by the minority? Not to support the 

 Constitution ; not to stand by the Constitution 

 as it is ; but to make a new Constitution, and a 

 new Constitution by the provisions of which 

 the institution of slavery should be carried into 

 all the territories we now have south of 36 

 30', and all the territories we can ever acquire, 



