CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (THE Fixz-Joim POKTEE CASE.) 



243 



animosity, which characterized the period at 

 which Gen. Porter was required to confront 

 his accusers at the bar of military justice. 



" Nor need I speak that other word, inca- 

 pacity, which never fails to reach for a victim 

 to shield it from public contempt and indigna- 

 tion. To say that Gen. Porter suffered all this 

 is but recounting the truths of history. 



"Nearly twenty years have come and gone, 

 long and weary years to Gen. Porter and his 

 beloved family, since his brother officers pro- 

 nounced upon him that terrible doom which 

 has grown darker with time. During all this 

 time Gen. Porter has stood at the doors of the 

 temple consecrated to justice asking, not for 

 mercy, only for justice, and it has been de- 

 nied. What was his as a right has been de- 

 nied him even as a privilege. 



"But, thank Heaven, new light is slowly 

 but surely breaking over the dark and dismal 

 sea he has been forced to sail. Boards of mili- 

 tary officers, not supposed to be his friends, of 

 high renown, have so far as they lawfully 

 could reversed the unjust judgment and turned 

 the calcium light upon the workings of the 

 past. Gen. Grant, distinguished alike for his 

 ability and courage in war and the gallantry of 

 his heart and mind in peace (to his everlasting 

 honor be it said), bears living witness to the 

 justice of his cause. 



"One by one the plague-spots which red- 

 dened the horizon of his military glory are 

 fading away, and Gen. Porter stands to-day 

 robed in white, without stain, even in the eyes 

 of those who had been his bitterest accusers. 



" But this is not enough. The records of 

 this country, in whose cause he fought and by 

 whose fault he suffered, if not corrected, will 

 hand down to his children's children and their 

 children for all time the deep damnation of 

 their father's shame. His country itself struck 

 the cruel blow. Congress alone can heal the 

 wound. 



" Is there a man here whose conscience does 

 not tell him, with the weight of testimony we 

 hear, that. there are not at least sufficient facts 

 to cover this case with the mantle of a doubt ? 

 Is there a jurist here who has not charged from 

 the bench time and time over that to doubt was 

 to acquit ? Is there a lawyer here who has not 

 in thunder-tones demanded for his client, as a 

 right recognized and respected the world over, 

 the benefit of a doubt? Is there a Senator 

 here who has followed in his mind's eye the ca- 

 reer of Gen. Porter from camp to camp, from 

 battle-field to battle-field, on the long and toil- 

 some march by day and by night, who in his 

 heart believes he was guilty of treason? If 

 not, and the proofs seem to be wanting, it is 

 your duty to pass this bill. 



I have not the physical health nor indeed 

 the inclination to follow the Senator from Il- 

 linois in his wanderings after testimony upon 

 which with his construction he might justify 

 his vote against this bill. We leave the con- 

 elusions of the Senator from Illinois side by 



side with the conclusions of the advisory board, 

 made up as it was of three distinguished officers 

 of the army, some of whom at the outset of the 

 investigation believed in his guilt, and who 

 could not be convinced to the contrary with- 

 out the strongest evidence. With all the facts, 

 new and old, before it this board reported 

 unanimously in his favor, and have forever 

 settled the question of Gen. Porter's innocence 

 in the hearts and convictions of the people 

 of this country. Let now this Senate do its 

 plain, simple duty, and undo this wrong, so far 

 as it is possible to do it, by passing this bill." 



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

 President, I am not going to speak upon this 

 bill. I intend to vote in accordance with the 

 views presented by the Senator from Illinois 

 (Mr. Logan). I am convinced that I ought to 

 do so. I never have had any hesitation as to 

 which was the right way to vote, so far as I 

 am concerned, except for a time after the 

 Schofield board made its report. I am person- 

 ally acquainted with a member of that board. 

 I am long and intimately acquainted with Gen. 

 Alfred H. Terry. I have known him well for 

 more than twenty-five years. I served with 

 him or near him during the whole war ; and I 

 only rise to express my deprecation of an inti- 

 mation made by my honorable friend the Sen- 

 ator from Illinois, an implication that the board 

 might possibly have been influenced by im- 

 proper motives ; that the questions likely to 

 arise concerning promotion might have had 

 something to do with their judgment. It 

 should be put upon record, I think at least I 

 take leave to do so that my friend Gen. Terry 

 earnestly begged to be excused from that board. 

 He told the Secretary of War that his judgment 

 was made up ; that he was against Porter ; that 

 he thought Porter was rightfully convicted, 

 and that he was not the man to go upon that 

 board. They still insisted, and he went there 

 with that prepossession. If there be an honor- 

 able man in the world it is Gen. Terry, and 

 that he came out of that board with the rec- 

 ommendation he did was the only thing that 

 ever staggered my judgment in the case. I have 

 recovered from that; I am obliged to differ 

 with some of the dearest friends I have in the 

 world, whose motives I can not for a moment 

 question, but I am equally sure that I am right ; 

 and that is the misfortune." 



Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, said: "Mr. 

 President, it is not my habit to give explana- 

 tions for votes that I cast, nor is it my inten- 

 tion now to depart from that rule, for it makes 

 but little difference how plausible 'are the argu- 

 ments which may be given on any subject; it 

 is the vote itself or its result which counts. 



" My object in now rising is to speak of my 

 personal knowledge of Gen. Porter's connec- 

 tion with the war in its early history. I be- 

 lieve that I can state a few facts which came 

 under my own observation which will go far, 

 very far, to show that he, at the darkest mo- 

 ment of our great struggle, proved himself 



