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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



tleman says that that is not the reason why he 

 would except him. Why, the story he read 

 came to us all almost as news. Many of us 

 had not heard it, and those who had, had for- 

 gotten it. The incidents so shocking to hu- 

 manity had passed into oblivion. 



"How, then, can you expect foreigners, who 

 never before heard of these revolting details, 

 to understand your subtile motive ? And if they 

 were spread before them they would say, 'How 

 illogical to have let a man who had caused such 

 crimes to be perpetrated enjoy immunity for 

 ten years, and now to constructively punish 

 him for them ! ' They would all believe that 

 the chief of the Confederacy was deemed so 

 powerful for evil that the American Govern- 

 ment dared not formally invest him with rights 

 which he had forfeited in common with the 

 entire white population of the South, and 

 which it had practically restored to him by the 

 force of the reasons which underlie statutes of 

 limitations ; knowing that the second officer of 

 the Confederacy can be here and be honored 

 Congress after Congress with the right to select 

 his seat before the drawing for seats is begun, 

 they would believe that this other man is be- 

 lieved to possess such power for evil, is so 

 satanic in his power and when I use that 

 word I accept it as representing the one power 

 which all the world regards as able to compete 

 in evil with Omnipotence itself for if his 

 power be not of that kind, then we may well 

 admit him. To thus distinguish Jefferson Da- 

 vis is to honor him overmuch." 



Mr. Hill, of Georgia, said: "Mr. Speaker, 

 nothing could have been further from the de- 

 sires and purposes of those who with me rep- 

 resent immediately the section of country which 

 on yesterday was put upon trial, than to re- 

 open this discussion of the events of our un- 

 happy past. We had well hoped that the coun- 

 try had suffered long enough from feuds, from 

 strife, and from inflamed passions, and we came 

 here, sir, with a patriotic purpose, to remem- 

 ber nothing but the country and the whole 

 country, and, turning our backs upon all the 

 horrors of the past, to look with all earnest- 

 ness to find glories for the future. 



" The gentleman who is the acknowledged 

 leader of the Republican party on this floor, 

 who is the aspiring leader of the Republican 

 party of this country, representing most mani- 

 festly the wishes of many of his associates 

 not all has willed otherwise. They seem de- 

 termined that the wounds which were healing 

 shall be reopened, that the passions which were 

 hushing shall be reinflamed. Sir, I wish this 

 House to understand that we do not recipro- 

 cate either the purpose or the manifest desire 

 of the gentlemen on the other side, and while 

 we feel it our imperative duty to vindicate the 

 truth of history as regards the section which 

 we represent, feeling that it is a portion of this 

 common country, we do not intend to say any- 

 thing calculated to aid the gentlemen in their 

 work of crimination and recrimination, and of 



keeping up the war by politicians after brave 

 men have said the war shall end. The gentle- 

 man from Maine on yesterday presented to the 

 country two questions which he manifestly in- 

 tends to be the fundamental principles of the 

 Republican party, or at least of those who fol- 

 low him in that party. The first is what he is 

 pleased to term the magnanimity and grace of 

 the Republican party ; the second is the brutal- 

 ity of those whom he is pleased to term ' the 

 rebels.' Upon the first question I do not pro- 

 pose to weary the House to-day. If, with the 

 history of the last fifteen years fresh in the 

 memory of this people, the country is prepared 

 to talk about the grace and magnanimity of the 

 Republican party, argument would be wasted. 

 If with masters enslaved, intelligence disfran- 

 chised, society disorganized, industry para- 

 lyzed, States subverted, Legislatures dispersed 

 by the bayonet, the people can accord to that 

 party the verdict of grace and magnanimity, 

 may God save the future of our country from 

 grace and magnanimity ! 



"I advance directly to that portion of the 

 gentleman's argument which relates to the 

 question before the House. The gentleman 

 from Pennsylvania (Mr. Randall) has presented 

 to this House, and he asks it to adopt, a bill on 

 the subject of amnesty which is precisely the 

 same as the bill passed in this House by the 

 gentleman's own party, as I understand it, at 

 the last session of Congress. The gentleman 

 from Maine has moved a reconsideration of the 

 vote by which it was rejected, avowing his 

 purpose to be to offer an amendment. The 

 main purpose of that amendment is to except 

 from the operation of the bill one of the citi- 

 zens of this country. Mr. Jefferson Davis. 



" He alleges two distinct reasons why he asks 

 the House to make that exception. I will state 

 those reasons in the gentleman's own language. 

 First, he says that ' Mr. Davis was the author, 

 knowingly, deliberately, guiltily, and willfully, 

 of the gigantic murder and crime at Anderson- 

 ville.' That is a grave indictment. He then 

 characterizes in his second position what he 

 calls the horrors of Andersonville. And he 

 says of them : 



And I here, before God, measuring my words, 

 knowing their full extent and import, declare that 

 neitlier the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low 

 Countries, nor the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 

 nor the thumb-screws and engines of torture of the 

 Spanish Inquisition, begin to compare in atrocity 

 with the hideous crimes of Andersonville. 



" Sir, he stands before the country with his 

 very fame in peril if he, having made such 

 charges, shall not sustain them. Now, I take 

 up the propositions of the gentleman in their 

 order. I hope no gentleman imagines that I 

 am here to pass in eulogy upon Mr. Davis. The 

 record upon which his fame must rest has been 

 made up, and he and his friends have trans- 

 mitted that record to the only judge who will 

 give him an impartial judgment an honest, 

 unimpassioned posterity. In the mean time no 



