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ellion— the Mistakes of the Past— the I>uty ©t" the Presenl. 



SPEECH 

OP 






HON. GEORGE W. JlILtM, OF IND., 



ng 
ery 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 18th, 18(53. 



The House having under consideration the bill to indem- 
nify the President and other persons for suspending the 
■ .if the writ of habeas corpus, and acts committed 
in pursuance thereof— 

Mr. JULIAN said : 

Mr. Speaker: The line of argument I propose 
to pursue during the hour which belongs to me 
is general in its character, and will not specially 
refer to the measure now pending before the 
House. It will not, however, be found substan- 
tially irrelevant to the subject ; and as I have 
already waited several weeks for the floor, and 
the widest latitude lias thus far been allowed in 
this debate, I trust T shall be permitted to pro- 
ceed without encountering any very strict con- 
struction of the rules of order provided for the 
government of this body. 

In seeking to interpret the terrible conflict 
through which our country is passing, and to de- 
vise, if possible, a just and wise policy for the 
Government in its future action, the mind natu- 
ra ly reverts to the past. There is a sense in 
which it is well to let by-gones be t>y-gone3, but 
we can never afford to dispense with the lessons 
of experience. By an eternal law, as unvarying 
in politics as in morals, to-day is made the child 
of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow — 
the past and the present linked together in the 
relation of cause and effect, and irrevocably 
woven into the future. It is true philosophy, there- 
fore, to profit by our mistakes, to the extent ot 
shunning their repetition, while causing the past 
to reappear where its deeds have been worthy. 

The triumph of the Republican party in 1860 
was the triumph of freedom over slavery. I do 
not say that a'l who supported Abraham Lin- 
coin were abolitinis s, or even anti-slavery men, 
or that all who opposed him were the advocates 
of shivery. This would be very far from the 
exact truth. What I affirm fc, that hostility to 
slavery was the animating sentiment of the men 
whose deeply-rooted convictions and unquench- 
able zeal made the formation of the Republican 
party a necessity, and nerved it with all its real 
strength ; while, i n the other hand, the espousal 
of slavery was the gmnd and darling purpose of 
those whose shaping hand and inspiring ambi- 
tion gave life and law to the Democratic organi- 
zation. 

I go further still. The contest of 1860 wa c 
not simply a struggle between slavery and free- 
dom, but a struggle of life and death. Siavtry 
as a system of unskilled labor, demands the right 



of unrestricted extension over fresh soil as a coadL 
tion of its life. This is a law of nature, attest? d 
by the Seminole and Florida war, the seizure 
of Texas, the war with Mexico, the repeal of the 
Missouri res'ricion, the raid into Kinsas, and b\ 
its entire history in this country. Confine it by 
mpassable boundaries, and it will turn upon and 
devour its own lif.», and destroy both master and 
slave. Slaveholders understand this perfec:ly, 
and I do not marvel that their hostility wis not 
assuaged in the smallest degree by the Republi- 
can dogma <*f non-interference with it in tin- 
States. They knew that the exclusion of i. 
from all Federal territory would not only pin 
che nation's brand upon it in the States which it 
scourges, and condemn it as a public enemy, but 
virtually sentence it to death. They believed, 
with our Republican fathers, that restriction 
means destructioa- They knew that as the first 
dose of medicine given to a sick man forms a 
part of the whole process of cure, so the policy 
of limitation, as an incipient remedy for our 
great national malady, would be followed by 
other measures, moral, economical, and political, 
which would ultimately but surely expel it from 
the country. Hence they fought Republicanism 
with all the zeal aud desperation which could 
be inspired by 8 great social and moneyed 
power, threatened with suffocation and death. 
They were simply obeying the law of self-pres- 
ervati m ; and 1 think it due to frankness to con- 
fess that the charge of " abolitionism," which 
they incess-tntly hurled at the Republican party, 
was by no means totally wanting in eseential 
truth. When they were vanquished in the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, their appeal from the ballot 
to the bullet; was the logical confequence of 
their insane devotion to slavery, and i heir convic- 
tion that nothing could save it but the ruin of 
the Republic. 

Such was the issue decided by the people in 
the last pr?sidential canvass. It was the lony;- 
postponed battle between slavery and anti-sla- 
very, fairly encountering each other at the bal- 
lot-box. It was a struggle between two intensely 
hostile ideas, wrestling for the final mastery of 
the Republic. Freedom, through the Republican 
party as its instrument, triumphed over slavery, 
with both wings of the Democratic party as ite 
servants and tools ; for the distinction between 
Breckinridge Democracy and Douglas Democracy 
was purely metaphysical, and eluded, entirely, 
the plain common sense of honest men. 



our- 
ntry 



jf 

by 
i ia 

Bte- 
ad- 

wal 



Now, sir, I hold that the people of the United 

who earned and fairly achieved this great 

victory, bad a Tested right to its fruit'. They 

hud a light to expect the domination of slavery 

er the national Government to cease. They 

nl a right to demand that all its Departments 

ould be committed to the band' of those who 

evad in the g and idea on which the Admin- 

ttion ascended to power. And the iaterven- 

h of the rebellion in no degree whatever re- 

ased the Government from its duty in this 

pect. The rebellion did not refute, but con- 

med, the truth of Republicanism. It was simply 

fin il chapter in the history of the slave power, 

advanced Btage of Blaveholding rapacity, 

urally born of Democratic misrule ; and in- 

ad of tempting us to cower before it and sur- 

der our principles, furnished an overwhelming 

gument in favor of standing by them to the 

death. 

I do not say that no man who had been identi- 
fied with the Democratic party should have been 
appointed to office, but that no man who regarded 
with indifference the great principle which bad 
tiiumphed in the canvass; no man, certainly, 
who was known to be hostile to that principle, 
should have been allowed to hold any Federal 
office, high or low, civil or military, at home or 
abroad. This was the duty of the Administra- 
tion; for the simple reason that it couid not 
decline it with fidelity to the people who had 
installed it in power. The Republican principle 
was as true after the election as during the can- 
vass; as true in the midst of war as in seasons 
of peace ; and just bo far as we have lost sight 
of this truth, just so far have we strayed trom 
the path of safety. Indeed, instead of putting 
our principles in abeyance when the storms of 
war came, we should have clun< to them with 
a redoubled energy and a dedicated zeal. In- 
stead of making terms with our vai quished 
opponents by conferring upon them office and 
power, we should have taught thtm th it these 
were necessarily forfeited in our triumph. And I 
we should have remembered that even our ene- 
mies would brand us as hypoerit s and cowards, 
if the Administration should be less distinctively 
Republican in principle and policy than had 
: t-u the party which created it. 

Vcy nearly allied to the policy of conciliating 
«.ur opponents, and thus building up their power, 
waa the project of a Union party, encouraged by 
Republican politicians simultaneously with the 
I '.'yinnngof this Administration. Such amove- 
ment, started soon after a healed political can- 
vass involving the issue of slavery and anti- 
slavery, was utterly preposterous. The war grew 
out of the very question which had organized 
our parties and marshalled them agaiust each 
Oth r in time of peace; and hence, instead of 
inciting and fusing them into one, their lines of 
division wou'd be brought out all the more 
v, and their antagonisms all the more 

iQtooaified. it was Locrtdibta that pjo-slarerj 

■ :icy, afar liuving been so thoroughly 
drugged and surleited with the here sies of 
em rebels, should, in the twinkling of an <y;, 
inter into cordial union with the men it had so 



long traduced. What is now palpable to all 
men, I thought obvious in the beginning: that 
a union cf Republicans and Democrats, on the 
single question of putting down the rebellion, 
ignoring the real isBue out of which it sprang, 
was simp y a shallow expedient for dividing the 
spoils of office, at the cost of a practical sur- 
render of the principles for which Republicans 
had so zealously contended. I do not say that 
the disruption &f the Democratic party was by 
any means impossible. There was a vigorous, 
ljyal element pervading its rank and file which 
its unprincipled leadership would have been 
powerless to control, if Republicans had stood 
firm. If we had been perfectly true to our own 
principles, bating no jot of zeal in their main- 
tenance, and frowning upon any movement which 
sought to soften down or shade off the right- 
angled character of our anti-slavery policy ; if 
we had bravely accepted the consequences of 
that policy, branding the rebellion as the <"hild of 
slavery, and the Democrati". party as the great 
nursing mother that had fed and pampered it into 
this bloody revolt against the Constitution; if, 
when the truth of our doctrines and the guilt of 
our opponents were written down in the fire3 of 
civil war, we had called upon all men to join 
hands with us in saving the country, the D mo- 
cratic party would have heard its death knell in 
the guns of Fort Sumter, and instead of b Trow- 
ing new life from the cowardice and decline of 
Republicanism, would have crawled to its guilty 
and dishonored grave. Only by persistent fidelity 
to our own principles cou;d we hope either to 
break down the power of our foes or maintain a 
real Union movement. This we already had in 
the Republican party. If there is an.) where a 
Republican who is not a Union man I would be 
glad to know where he may be foun 1. Th.s ac- 
cursed war is upon us to-day because the policy 
of the Government, under the rule of slave-breed- 
ing Democracy, has so long been d ifting from 
the principles of our Republican fithers, as re- 
affirmed in the Philadelphia and Chicago plat- 
forms. The rebellion is a fulfilled prophecy of 
Thomas J lf.rson, and of all the lead'mg anti- 
slavery men of a later generation; and nothing, 
certainly, should have been further from our 
purpose than to rush with indecent haste into 
the embrace of unrepentaut Democrats, when the 
very life of the nation had been brought into 

i deadly peril by their systematic recreau y to ths 

j principles of real Democracy. 

! Sir, Democratic policy not only gave birth to 
the rebellion, but Democrats, and ouly Demo- 
cats, are in arms against their country. Demo- 
crats fi. - ed on its flag at Fort Sumter. Jefferson 
Davis is a Democrat, and so is every God-for- 
saken rebel at his heels. A Democratic Admin- 
istration was in power when the rebellion first 
lifted its head. A Democratic INesident, who 

| could have nipped it in the bud, allowed our Navy 

I to be sent to distant seas, our fortresses to b? oc- 
cupied, our arwnale anil navy-yards to be seized, 
and • ur arms an«J munitions to be stolen. Demo- 
crats clutched h,e Treasury of the Government 

I and robbed it of its Indian bonds. The distin- 
guished thieves and cut-throats who are known 



as ths leaders of tha rebellion, such as Floyd, 
Thompson, Yancey, and Cobb, are all D raocrat3. 
Not only is it true that rebels are Democrats, 
but so are rebel sympathizers, whether in the 
North or the Soutb. Oa the other hand, the 
Republican party, so far as I can learn, has not 
furnished a siogle recruit to the ranks of the f 



I would have been the peace of the pit, "stifling, 
suffocating, su'try" — a peace infinitely more 
i dreadful than the war we have chosen to accept 
I in the maintenance of our principles; and our 
I Union would have been a confed-racy of cor- 
I sairs, devouring humanity, defying God, exalting 
devil, and gladdening the heart of every 



rebellion. Loyalty and republicanism go hand |l absolutist and tyrant throughout the earth. Sir, 
in hand throughout the Union, as perfectly as n I rejoice greatly that Republicans had the cour- 
treasoo and slavery. Ij age to throw themselves between their country 

In the light of these pregnant facts, Mr. Chair- 1 and the eternal damnation to which Democratic 



man, we find no occasion for a new party. What 
we should'work and pray for is the success of 
our principles, and this can only be secured by 



policy was about to consign it ; and that now, 
standing face to face wi'h the dread realities of 
war, they are still resolved to stand together by 



steadfastness of purpose and associated political || the flagstaff of freedom. No step backwards is 

possible, nor was there any hope for the Re- 
public so long as the Government and its ad- 



action. We need something of permanence in j 
our movem'ents, shunning that fickleness and in- j 
stability that would form a new party, with a | 
new name, for, every campaign, and thus fritter | 
away our strength in the fickleness of our 
schemes, instead of husbanding it for effective j 
service. Republicanism is not like a garment, j 
to be put on or laid aside for our own conveni- 
ence, but an enduring principle, which can never 
be abandoned without faithlessness to the coun- 
try. It is not a succession of " dissolving views," 
brought on to the political stage to amuse con= j 
servative gentlemen, or to dazzle and bewilder i 
the people, but the fixed star which should guide | 
us through the shifting phases of American pol- i 
itics and the bloody labyrinths of war. Sir, not 
even to save the Union, or to restore the bless- 
ings of peace, should we forsake its light. It is 
because we loved our principles more than peace ; 
that we are now in the midst of war. We de- 1 
manded a Union und^r conditions that would i 
make it the servant of liberty, and not the hand- { 
maid of slavery, and the rebellion is the resu 



visers failed to realize this fact. 

Mr. Chairman, I have indicated, in general 
terms, the mistakes of Republican policy since 
the beginning of the war. Many of our trusted 
leaders have lost their way, while the Adminis- 
tration itself has not been thoroughly Republi- 
can in its policv. Forgetting the mere negations 
of our creed, it should have planted itself bravely 
on its affirmations, pausing not a moment to 
apologize, or deprecate, or explain. The crisis 
called for absolute courage, and the time had 
gone by forever for any policy savoring, in the 
smallest degree, of tim'dity or hesitation. The 
disasters of this war, and the perils which now 
threaten the country, find their best explanation 
in the failure of the Government to stand by its 
f<-iends,and its realiness to strengthen the hands 
of its foes. To a fearful extent D 'tnocratic ideas 
and Democratic policy have ruled this Republi- 
can Administrati n from the beginning. Demo- 
cratic policy, very soon after the war began, 
Let us accept it; and when we are charged with i| speaking through our Republican Secretary of 
producing it, let us reply that the charge, if true ii State, declared that " the Federal Government 
at all, is true in a sense which makes infamous j| could not reduce the seceding States to obedi- 
the men who prefer it. In the sense in which ! ence by conquest," and that " only an imperial 
the opponents of paganism caused martyrdoms 1 1 or despotic Government could subjugate fcbor- 
in the early days of the Church; in the sense in ! oughly disaffected and insurrectionary members 
which the enemies of the papal power in ! of the State;" persuided the nations of the 
the time of Luther caused persecutions and h earth that our struggle was not an " irreprpss- 
death; in the sense in which Thomas Jefferson ible conflict" between two forms of society, each 
and the fathers caused the war of our Revolu- | of which was aimi-g at absolute dominion over 
ion, we, who are called Republicans, caused the 1 1 the country, but a mere domestic tumult which 

would subside in " sixty days ;" and that the in- 
stitution of slavery, which the whole world now 
confesses to have been the cause of the war, 
would not be affected by it, but " remain subject 
to exactly the same laws and forms of adminis- 
tration, whether the revolution shall succeed or 
whether it shall fail." Democratic policy, pour- 
ing its cowardly counsels into the ear of the 
commander-in-chief of our armies, tempted him 
to writs a letter to Secreta-y Seward, on the day 
before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, in which he 
scouttd the idea of subduing the rebel States by 
military power, favored the organization of a 
Union party and the abandonment of Republican- 
ism, and recommended a pacification on the god- 
less basis of the Crittenden resolves of January, 
1861; or that we should say to our "wayward 
sisters, go in peace." Democratic policy made 
Gen. McClellan commander-in-chief, by falsely 



rebellion, of which pro-tdavery Democracy 
is pre-eminently guilty. If we had allowed sla- i 
very to take root in the soil of Kansas, without 
resistance or protest ; if we had permitted it, 
through the help of the Supreme Court, to fasten 
its fangs upon all our Territories, so that neither 
Congress, nor the people, nor any human power 
could remove it ; if we had allowed it to g 3 freely 
into the non-slaveholding States, and set up its 
habitation in defiance of S ate enactments; if we 
had consented to the revival of the African slave 
trade, and that our lips should be sealed against 
the right to talk about it, except to talk in its 
favor; if, in a word, the people of the free States 
had been willing to trample under their feet the 
institutions of their fathers, and.to dedicate this 
continent to slaveholding and slave-breeding for- 
ever, then we might have had peace to-day, and 
on unbroken Union. But our Democratic peace 



I'mtflg for Ivra the victories of our arm* in 
Western Virginia, achieved by Rogecrans, Mor- 1| 
i?, and Benham, and by (he indorsement of i j 
General Scott, who as the country has since l| 

■ vied, did not believe in the war which the 
Government had inaugurated. Democratic pol- j 
cy, through General Patterson as its lepresen- 

live, detained a large army in the valley of! 
'.Viuchester which should have man bed against , 
General Johnston and his inferior force, instead 
of allowing him to join Beauregard at Bull 
Run, thus securing the defeat and rout of ourjl 
.»rmy, instead of a decisive victory, which, else, 
would have crowned our arms. Democratic II 
policy, through the authority of General Mc- 
Ciellan, kept the Potomac blockaded during the !l 
:!l and winter of 1361 and 1862; and when J 
tl e Navy Department insisted as it did repeat- j 
edly, on putting an end to the blockade, which 
it could have done at any moment, our Demo- lj 
cratic general objected that " it would bring on 
a general engagement ;" and thus was the honor 
of the nation compromised, and millions sacri- I 
tired through its interrupted commerce, without i 
cat: Be or excuse. Democratic policy, personified l! 
by General McClellan and General S'one, sent [ 
Colonel Baker and bis gal'ant men across the : 
Potomac against a superior force, with one li 
•ow and two small boats as the only means of jj 
'• asportation ; and after the crossing bad com- 
nn-n'-ed, twenty-four thousand men under Gen- 
eral Smith and General McCall, who were with- '< 
in striking distance, and expected by Colonel j 
)'» ker to join him, were o-dered to retreat by! 
General McClellan; while fifteen hundred of 
our men at Edwards' F rry, only three and a I 
hfilf miles from the battle field, who could have I 
reinforced Calonel Baker and turned the for-. 
lures of the day, were compelled to stand idle { \ 
while the gallant hero and his men were bu'ch- j 
ered without mercy. Diring the autumn and I 
winter months which followed. Democratic pol- \'~ 
i'-y made the grand army of the Potomac squat ' 
i>efore the wooden guns of Centreville and Ma- 
n«ssas ; and although our fores were many 
times larger than those of the rebels, and our 

: tine health and discipline, and eager to , j 
tight, while during these successive months we 
were favored with solid roads and clear frosty 
day* and nights, yet neither the persuasions of 
the President nor the clamors of the people 
conld induce General McClellan to move : nor 
did any member of the Cab : n*>t, nor the Prcsi- 
d nt himself, nor any general in his army, know 

•tie, or why our forces d'd not advance. I 
Democratic policy, refusing to allow our armies 
to go into winter quart* rs or to march upon the 
enemy, kept them strictly on the delusive 
throughout the Union, till the President in the 1 ; 
latter part of January of last year gave the or- 
dor forward, resulting in the victories of Fort I' 
Henry, Fort Donelson, and New-hern, wbicfa SO 
• trtrified the country. The army of the Poto- j 

M renin red to march on the 22d of Feb-! 
i •;■ ry, but Democratic policy held it. inactive j 
til the 10th of March, win n General McClel- ' 
Ian, in obedience to a peremptory order of the 

■At, took np the line of march toward '! 



Centrevill*, after having first learned that the 
rebels had retired toward the Rappahannock. 
This pink and beau-ideal of Democratic polby, 
instead of pushing at once toward Richmond, 
which he could have done by railroad by way 
of Aquia Creek and Fredericksburg, or by the 
Manassos and Gordonsville road, marched his 
army back to Alexandria, where hundreds per- 
ished or received the cause of their death, in 
the open fields and woods in sight of their tents, 
during the cold, drenching rains to which they 
were exposed for many days prior '.to their em- 
barkation for Fortress Monroe. 'Democratic 
policy, still ruling the country thrgugb General 
McClellan, planned the ill-fated campaign on 
the Peninsula; and although he Jiad insisted, 
while himself near the capital, that the whole 
army of the Potomac was necessary for its de- 
fence, yet on leaving, under poaitive'orders that 
this city should be amply defended, he seems to 
have considered fifteen thousand raw and un- 
disciplined troops, the refuse of the army, suffi- 
cient for its protection; all of the a-my in and 
around Washington, except this meagre force, 
having been ordered by him to proceed at once 
to the Peninsula. Democratic policy compelled 
the atmy of the Potomac to sit down before 
Yorktown till a small army bad grown to be a 
large one, and then permitted it to evacuate at 
its leisure. General Hooker, with hig advance 
force, followed ; but. Democratic policy, refusing 
to allow him to be reinforced, held thirty thousand 
men witbin sound of the battle, by which our 
forces were repulsed and the escape of the enemy 
secured. When our array at length reached the 
Chickahominy, Democratic policy founded (be 
kingdom of pickaxes and spades, and sent, thou- 
sands of our soldiers to their graves, because the 
employment of ab'e-bodied negroes in ditching 
would be offensive to Democratic gentility, and 
might endanger "the Union as it was." When 
Gen': McClellan, by order of Gen. Halleck, left the 
James river, and reached Alexandria in time to 
save General Pope at the second battle of Bull 
Ron, Democratic po'ioy, forgetting the country, 
allowed bim to be sacrificed. Democratic policy, 
sifting it 8 deadly poison into the mind of the Presi- 
dent, again placed General McClellan in com- 
mand of the armv of the Potomac, and reinstated, 
at his request, the generals whose failures had 
caused Pope's defeat ; and the " strategy " 
which followed left the way open for the with- 
drawal of General Loe, and delayed the march 
of our fo ces till Harper's Ferry had fallen into 
tbe hands of the enemy. Democratic policy, at 
the battle of Anti-tam, kept at least forty thou- 
sand of our men in reserve, and thus converted a 
magnificent victory, most, temptingly brought 
within our grasp, into at best a drawn battle. 
Democratic policy, which cost us more than fifty 
thousand soldiers on the peninsula, sytematically 
misled the public by compelling the newspaper 
correspondents within our lines to suppress facts 
and utter falsehoods, in order to glorify General 
McClellan, shield him from popular dasapproba- 
tion, and perpetuate his command. Democratic, 
policy at this moment clamors for his restoration, 
and every man who blames the Republicans for 



bringing on this war, and who declare?, as Gen. |! second in dignity, importance, and sacredness, 
McClellan did at its beginning, that the South is \\ to the religion of Christ." Democratic policy, 



right; every man who Believes in wearing out the 
patience of the country by military failures, so 
that the rebels may be restored to power through 
Borne infernal compromise ; everv man who de 



I by thus perpetually deferring to slavery as a 
| sacred thing, and to slaveholdtrs as a superior 
| order of men, has smotheied that feeling of re- 
sentment in our armies which else would have 



spiees the policy which would win victories, or j been evoked, and the lack of which, according 
follow them up when won: every man who was II to our commanders, is one of the sericus obsta- 
as much of a traitor as he had the courage to be Ijcles to our success. Democratic policy in the 



in the beginning of this struggle, and has all the I 
time wished the rebels a hearty God-speed ; every | 
man who has done his best, to discourage enlist- j 
ments, embarrass the action of the Government, 
and render the iv?.r ooious to the people; every 
man who raises the cry of peace, and talks about 
new guarantees to pacify the felons who have 
sought the nation's life; every man who loves 
negro slavery better than he loves his country, 
and would soon r see the Republic in ruins than 
the slavps set free, is the zealous advocate and 
nnflincbincr champion of General McClellan. 
Mr. Chairman, Democratic policy proves it 



year 1861 gave us as commanders of our three 
great military departments, McClellan, Halleck, 
and Buell, whose military administrations have 
so terribly cursed the country ; while it imposed 
upon our volunteer forces in the field, such offi- 
cers as Fitz John Porter, General Nelson, Gen- 
eral Stone, and very many more whose sympa- 
thies with the rebels were well known through- 
out the country. 

Mr. WADSWORTH. I desire to make an in- 
quiry of the gentleman. I thought I under- 
stood him to say that General Nelson's eympa- 
thy with the rebels was well known. I wish to 



self the ally of treason by hugging the cause ;|know if he alludes to General William Nelson, 
which produces it. It clings to slavery as a ij deceased. 

dying man ciitigs to lite. It condemns its pm- J| Mr. JULIAN. I allude to that gentleman, 
hibition in our Territories, and its abolition in Mr. WADSWORTH. I was born and reared 
this'Disirict. In the midst of a terrific struggle H with him, served with him in intimate relations 
of ihe nation for self-preservation, requiring II against the rebels, and knew him from his 
the use of all the weapons known to the laws j | youth up to the time of his death; and I say 
of war, it demands the repeal of our confisca- !j that there was not a more determined opponent 
tion laws, and denounces the President's proc- j of the rebels and of secession in America. The 
Tarnation giving freedom to the slaves of rebels, jj language of the gentleman is untrue. The stain 
With equal zeal it opposes the gradual • > abol- ■ attempted to be cast upon the memory of Gen- 
ishm.nt of slavery," with the consent of loyal J eral Nelson is undeserved and unfounded. Such 
masters, and compensation allowed them. Dem- j! language at that is outrageous. I have heard 
ocratic policy clamors for peace with rebels in Ij the speech, entirely out of order upon this bill, 
arms, on the basis of the Crittenden compi-o- j with patience, but I cannot allow the memory 
mise, rejected by them two years ago, and j: of William Nelson to be slandered in this way. 
which, if 'accepted, would completely surrender il Mr. JULIAN. In reply to theremarks of the 
the liberties of the people to the slaveholding [j gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. Wadsworth.) I 

have only to say that what I said is true. I did 
not say that General Nelson was a rebel. I said 
j he was well understood to be in sympathy with 
! the rebels, and this understanding, so far as I 
| have any means of knowledge, is universal 
: among the Foldiers of Indiana, and Ohio who 
I have served under him in the field in Kentucky 
and elsewhere. While I do not say that he was 
a rebel, I say that, like some other distin- 
guished gentleman from Kentucky, he was a 
rebel sympathizer, loving slavery more than he 
loved his country. That I desire so say in the 
most emphatic words I know how to employ. 

The gentleman from Kentucky did not charge 
me with an intentional misrepresentation, as I 
understood him. If he makes that charge I 
shall deal with it. I understand we simply 
differ as to a matter of fact. 

Mr. WADSWORTH. I did not intend to 
charge the gentleman with any intentional mis- 
representation touching the sentiments of Geu- 
eral Nelson, unless he makes himself responsi- 
ble for it. I did not know but that he was 
making a statement, in which he confided, de- 
rived from others. My purpose was to denounce 
the statement which the gentleman brings in 
here. 1 do not care who makes the statement, 
he is a slanderer of the gallant dead. 



Vandals of the South. Democratic policy h 
played into the hands of rebels by refusing the 
help of negroes in our armies, as lal orers, 
teamsters, cooks, nurses, scouts, and soldiers, 
thus necessarily weakening our military power, 
and sacrificing the lives of our men. Demo- 
cratic policy has sought the office of slave-hound 
for rebels ever since the beginning of the war, 
anl is still, occasionally, exercisingits functions 
in defiance of positive prohibitions. Democratic 
policy, taking the form of " Order No. 3," un- 
der which, for more than a year, loyal colored 
men were driven from our camps, and their 
proffered aid and information rejected, earned 
the gratitude of every rebel throughout the 
Union, and the curses of every loyal man. 
Democratic policy despises an abolitionist f<r 
more heartily than a traitor; the term aboli- 
tionist, according to a leading Democratic or- 
gan, signifying "any man who does not love 
slavery for its own sake, as a divine institu- 
tion ; who does not worship it as the corner- 
stone of civil liberty ; who does not adore it as 
the only possible social condition on which a 
permanent republican government can be erect- 
ed ; and who does not, in his inmost soul, de- 
sire to see it extended and perpetuated over the 
whole earth, as a means of human reformation. 



6 



Mr. JULIAN. I decline to yield to the gen- 
tleman further. The gentleman denounces my 
assertion — 

Mr. WADSWORTH. Idenounceitasaelander. 
Mr. JULIAN. And I denounce the gentle- 
mau's denunciation, and his defence of a rebel 
sympathizer. 

Mr. Speaker, Democratic policy, speak- 
ing through officers high in command in the 
army of the Potomac, now more than a year, 
ago, threatened to march upon the capital and 
disperse Congress as Cromwell did the Parlia- 
ment, because a joint committee of both Houses 
of Congress was inquiring into the conduct of 
the war. Democratic policy, when General 
Fremont proclaimed freedom to the slaves of 
rebels in Missouri, inundated th* Executive 
Mansion with falsehoods, which had their coin- 
ing in pro-slavery malice and disappointed am- 
bition ; and a Republican President, yielding to 
a torrent which he thought resistless, removed 
him from his command ; and although the policy 
of this proclamation has since been accepted by 
the Government, and the charges on which he 
was hounded down are known to be false, yet 
Democratic policy still deprives the country of 
his service, because he is a Republican, and an 
unbeliever in the supreme divinity of slavery. 
Deraocraiic policy holds in its hands all the 
great machinery of this war, and directs it ac- 
cording to its own wi 1. Oar present command- 
er-in-chief is a Democrat, whose future man- 
agement of the war, if we are to judge from his 
past career, promises nothing for the country. 
Of the m^jor and brigadier generals in our ar- 
mies, Democratic policy has favored this Repub- 
lican Administration, if I am not mistaken, with 
over four-fifths — certainly an overwhelming ma- 
jority ; while those great hives of military pat- 
ronage, the Adjutant General's Department, the 
Quart rmnster's Department, the Commissary 
Department, the Ordnancs Department, and the 
Pay Department, are aU under Democratic con- 
trol, and have been during the war. Several of 
the heads of these departments held their posi- 
tions under James Buchanan ; while Democratic 
policv likewise controls the chief bureaus in 
the Navy Department. Democratic policy has 
not only studiously ihrown into the background 
Republican generals, whose hearts are in the 
war, and put in the lead political generals of 
its own type, but has pursued the same policy 
toward Democratic generals who have evinced 
a change of views on the question of slavery. 
Mitchell and Hunter are cases in point, while 
Curti3 is almost the only Republican general 
who has been allowed to hold an independent 
command in a war in which, according to the 
best attainable data, m >re than three-fourths of 
the soldiers of the Union are Republicans. To 
an alarming extent Democratic policy has ruled 
in the Post Office, War, Treasury, and Interior 
Departments, in which, after vety many long- 
delayed but greatly neede<1 removals, effected 
chiefly through I longreMlooal intervention, there 
arc still hundreds of Democratic clerk?, of 
whom many arc known to be rebels in heart, 
*nd sonic of tbeu the appointees and pets of 
D.ivi., Flo;-.], i n<l Tliomppon. What is equally 



remarkable, is the fact that th" h'gher and more 
lucrative grades of these positions are nearly 
all given to Democrats ; while Democratic poli- 
cy, adhering to its ancient custom, under this 
Republican Administration, bestows upon the 
District of Columbia, and such States as Mary- 
land and Virginia, a share of these places in 
monstrous disproportion to that of the free States 
of the North and West. I cannot go further 
into details; but the fruits of this Democratic 
policy are seen in great military disasters ; in 
the wasted energies and fading hopes of the 
people; in reactionary movemen's in the free 
States ; in threatened intervention from abroad, 
and in impending national ruin ; and without a 
speedy change in our policy, no power but that 
of God, through miraculous intervention, can 
save our country. 

Mr. Chairman, the time has come when every 
true man in the Union shou'd demand,, in the 
name of the country, that Democratic policy 
shall rule it no longer. When the nation is gapp- 
ing for breath because the honored leaders of 
Republicanism have been infidel to its principles, 
plainness of speech is a ou'y, and silence a 
crime. As a freeman, aud the Rep-esentative 
of freemen, it is at once my right and my duty 
to utter what I believe to be vital truth. 1 deep- 
ly regret the necessity which impels me to criti- 
cise the policy of the Administration. I honor 
the President as the cihief magistrate of the 
Republic, and love him as a man. I have received 
at his hands nothing but personal kindness and 
political respect. I stand ready to make any 
earthly sacrifice to sustain him in this direful 
conflict with the rebel power of the country, 
North and South. "Faithful are the reproofs 
of a friend," and it is as his friend, seeking *o 
rescue the land from political perdition, and 
not as a disguised rebel, seeking to undermine 
his Administration, that I speak. I tell him 
that his policy of conciliating Democrats has 
been as ruinous to our cause as the kindred 
policy of conciliating rebels. Instead of winning 
them to our side, blotting out the lines of party, 
and inaugurating an " era of good feeling," it 
has breathed fresh life and vigor into the Demo- 
cratic organization, which now everywhere con- 
fronts us as a powerful and consolidated op- 
position, while our own party is disbanded and 
powerless. Sir, had the policy of the Govern- 
ment been boldly Republican, making good 
to the people their victory over the cohorts 
of slavery in 18(>0, every northern State would 
to-day have been wheeled into line on the side 
of the Administration, and the Democratic party 
would have been lingering on its death- bed. 
The war itself, 1 firmly believe, would have been 
ended, and with far less sacrifice of treasure 
and blood than we have already incurred. I 
speak respectfully, but earnestly, when 1 say 
the President must stand by his friends, if he 
expects his friends to stand by him. He must 
point the door to every pampered pro-slavery rat 
in any of his public cribs, and bestow the offices 
and honors at his disposal upon those who believe 
in the Republican idea. He should institute, as 
speedily as possible, a general casting out of 
devils from the various Departments of the 



Government, and fill their places with men who 
believe in God, and who have not outlived their 
consciences in serving as the shameless scullions 
of the slave power. By all means, and at the 
earliest moment, should he insist upon a lustra- 
tion of the military Department, to purify it 
from the deadly coniamination of treason. This 
is a slaveholders' rebellion. The rebellion, in 
fact, is ' slavery in arms," and therefore no man 
who believes in slavery is fit for any high com- 
mand. The war is not a war of sections, but of 
ideas ; and we need and must have military 
leaders who will conduct it in the light of this 
truth. To the want of such leaders must be at- 
tributed the- delays and disasters of the strug- 
gle thus far. General Sigel says : 

'■ It is nu enormous crime to expose our devoted soldiers 
to the I'ury ol a united, determined, and vigorous enemy, on 
account of any hesitancy to us - the right means at the right 
time , or by placing men in high and responsible positions 
Who, on account of their former associations and pledges, 
can never he trusted as sincere friends of the Republic, nor 
expected to strike a fatal blow at treason and rebellion." 

Sir, we must have commanders who will fight, 
not simply as the stipendiaries of the Govern- 
ment, but as men whose whole hearts are in the 
work, and who believe, religiously, in the rights 
of man. 

" It is the heart, and not the brain, 
That to the highest dolli attain." 
I believe you may search the history of the 
world in vain for such armies as we now have 
in the field. Their heroism upon every battle- 
field, ofteu under incompetent commanders, and 
always under the most appalling disadvantages, 
must be the theme of everlasting praise. They 
have seemed to understand this quarrel from the 
beginning. They have fought as only men 
could fight who counted their lives as nothing in 
comparison with the life of the Republic, and 
the imperiled cause of liberty on earth. The 
battle of Fredericksburg, where thousands 
marched itito the jaws of certain death without 
the wavering of a hair, affords but a single ex- 
ample of the spirit which has so ungrudgingly 
offerel up so many heroic lives during the war. 
/ Sir, I houor our patriot soldiers as 1 honor no 
' men, titled or untitled, who walk the earth. 
Their example, looming above the general prof- 
ligacy and faithlessness of mere politicians, has 
already made humanity sublime, and anchored 
the final triumph of our cause to the very throne 
of the Eternal. In their name do I speak when 
1 plead that they shall be allowed to fight our 
battles under competent and worthy leaders, 
whose souls are on fire with a quenchless zeal 
for our cause. In our war with Mexico, as I 
am advised, no man was allowed to hold the 
office of major general of volunteers, or briga- 
dier general, who was not a member of the De- 
mocratic party. I believe this policy was exten- 
sively carried out also as to the subordinate 
places in our Army, at least nine-tenths of 
which were conferred upon the party in power. 
General Scott and General Taylor were Whigs, 
but they held their positions before the war, 
and during its progress had to encounter a 
fierce and formidable opposition from the Ad- 
ministration and its friends. I am not find- 
ing fault with this policy, which I refer to as 



simply showiDg that the Government, at that 
time, dispensed its favors among its friends, 
and intrusted the command of our armies to 
men who believed in the war. Thi3 the Govern- 
ment should do to-day. This is a war of free- 
dom and free labor against a mighty aristocracy 
based upon the ownership of men. Our aim is 
the overthrow of that power, and the reorgani- 
zation of southern society on a republican basis ; 
and it should require no argument to prove that 
men who believe in this aristocracy are not the 
most fit commanders in such a contest. On this 
subject history is not wanting in lessons to 
guide us. As early as the year 1388 the cities 
of Germany, which had formed four leagues in 
self-defence against the aristocracy that lived 
only by its pluuder of commerce, were engaged 
in deadly conflict for their rights. They made 
two mistakes, which paved the way fi,r their 
ruin. They lost the sympathy of the peasantry, 
because they fought only for the privileges of 
the cities ; and they appointed nobles to com- 
mand their armies who cared more for their 
property in the cities than for the rights of the 
people. These nobles counselled "moderation," 
and one of them proved a traitor on the field of 
battle. Afterwards, city after city fell into the 
hands of the aristocracy, and the people be- 
came the prey of a- swarm of petty monarchs, 
who annihilated the external power of the 
country, which groans under their oppression 
to this day. The same principle was illustrated 
in our revolutionary war by the State of South 
Carolina, which swarmed with royalists and to- 
ries, who, like the rebels now in arms against 
us, loved slavery more than they loved their 
country. It is not possible to put down one 
privileged class through the leadership of an- 
other, unless their interests are antagonistical. 

Mr. Chairman, the fatal consequence of losiDg 
sight of the principle I am now urgiDg has been 
seen in the recall of General Fremont Lorn his 
command of the Western department. In the 
year 1856, his name had bren consjicuously 
identified with the great political coufLct which 
finally culminated in a conflict of arms. He was 
known to the country lets as a politician thaD 
as a patriot, and a man of genius and dauntless 
courage; and 'here was a romance aoout his life 
and name which kindled the popular enthusiasm 
in his behalf to a very remarkable degree. He 
entered upon his command at the end of July 
with less than twenty-five thousand effective men, 
poorly armed and equipped; and of these ten 
thousand were three mouths men, whose time 
expired in ten days from his arrival. At the end 
of October he held sixty thousand square miles of 
the enemy's country, and had succeeded in or- 
ganizing and equipping an army which was every- 
where successful along the whole extent ot his 
lines. He had restored quiet and comparative 
peace to the State of Missouri, while the enemy 
was in full retreat before him.' Believing the 
revolutionary measures of the rebels could only 
be put down by revolutionary energy, and that 
all moderation in dealing with them was the ex- 
pedient of weak men or ot traitors, he impressed 
his strong will and earnest purpose urun every 
feature of his administration. He saw Uien, whtU 



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the President has final'.y discovered and told us in ! 
his late message, that "the dogmis of the quiet ; 
p9st are inadequate to the stormy present ;" that ; 
" in our case is new, so we must think anew and 
act anew;" and that "we must disenthral our- j 
selves, and then we shall save our country." I 
believe no commander in the public service has 
thus far thown more military genius, or been 
mora successful, considering the circumstances 
of his command; and it should be remembered 
to his credit that the victories of our arms in 
the West, early in last year, were achieved upon 
the exact lines of march which he planned and 
published in September of the preceding year. 
When he issued his proclamation of frtedoni the 
military enthusiasm of the people was unchilled. 
With gladness and thanksgiving they received 
it as a new sign of promise. Even such Demo- 
cratic papers as the Boston Post, Detroit Free 
Press, Chicago Times, and New York Herald, 
approved of it, while it siirred and united the 
people of the loyal States during the ten days of 
lifd a'lotted it by the Government, far more than 
any other event of this war. The President, in 
an evil hour, annulled it; and the boiled-down 
malice and meanness which it provoked, and 
which were poured out so copiously through 
Adjutant General Thomas, finally effected tne 
intended change in the command of this depart- 
ment. From this conduct of the Government 
toward General Fremont dates the pro-slavery 
reaction which we now witness. Beginning then, 
it has gained force and volume every hour since. 
It balked the popular enthusiasm which eUe 
would have drawn along with it even mulitudes 
of conservative men. It caused timid and halt- 
ing epirhs to become cowards outright. It gave 
new life to the slave powe-, and encouraged 
fiercer assaults upon "abolitionism." The Demo- 
cratic par y, which the war had pretty effectually 
driven into retirement, began to assume its 
former prerogative-, and manifest its sympathy 
for treason. Sir, I can never think of the woes 
an i sorrows with which this war ha9 deluged 
our country within the past twelve mont s, 
without deploring the malign influences which 
led the Administration to strike down a Repub- 
lican major general iu the midst of a glorious 
career, and in defiance of the sentiment of the 
people, whiie Democratic generals, who were 
lauded by every rebel sympathizer throughout 
the couniry, and whose incapacity or disloyalty 
could not have been unknown to the Govern- 
ment, have been persistently kept at the head of 
our great military departments. 

ie beyond our control, its 

ild not go unheeded. TheGovorn- 
in. in cunn.it " . but it can atone, In Borne 

ing II boa dona tha country and 

I ij mg him, without further del iy , 
to actlvo servlco. with • rank and 

merit* patriotism 

been the victhn of the st oruel 

most unmerited and mortifying humilia 
tlon. 'I: I .in .in. -i ..! 

General Fremont trill bear the w tiny, while 

• 
in itimi i . more than viudl- 

be corn- 
.i id friends. Tn 

■ the ear 
• Hi, and 
- 



i baok 
It would be a eon. 



j spicunus milestone in the progress of the Government, and 
1 must fitly follow the grand message which proclaimed free- 
dom to millions on the first day of tho new year. In tho 
j name of the country let it bo 'done ; and let restitution be 
made to every other officer in our armies who has boon 
n of Democratic policy. The Government, which 
at first sought to spare slavery, now seeks to destroy it. 
At last it has a policy ; and 1 bold tint no man is lit to lead 
our armies, or to hold any civil positl who does not sus- 
tain that policy. Our only hope lies in a vigorous prosecu- 
tion 01 the war and the overthrow of De 
j care little for moro nam -s. For such Generals as Rose- 
crans, Butter. Bayard, Rousseau, Wallace, Dumont, and 
Corcoran, and such civilians as Stanton, Bancroft, Owen, 
j and Dickinson, I have only words of praise. They aro 
! heartily for their country , and as heartily despise the Den- 
| ocratic leaders who gabble about compromise with reuels. 
The recognized leaders of the Democratic party, judged by 
| their avowed policy, are di-loyal in spirit ;uid purpOSO, 
They talk about the " Constitution as it is," while conniv- 
I ing at its destruction by rebels, and offering them peace 
on the basis of a reconstructed Government and another 
Constitution. They clamor for " the Union ;n it was,-' 
and mean by this the Union more completely than ever 
under the domination of slavery. I know what 1 hazard 
by this freedom of speech. Iknov mocrutlc 

policy continue to sway this Administration, still further 
disasters may overtake our arms I know that the people 
may linally reel and sicken under, the prolonged spectacle 
of blood and treasure poured out in vain ; and hat tha 
restoration of the Democratic party to power may b ■ the 
result, followed by a compromise inaugurating a " rei^'ii of 
terror-'' iu the free States far more rclcnl I ian thai 

which prevailed in the South prior to tbe war. Dema- 
gogues; pointing the people to the desolation and ruin 
of the country caused by a profitless " abo ition war," 
and stimulated by southern leaders hungering and thirs ing 
10.' revenge, may usher in an era of la a Ie -.1. •-,-• and blood 
scarcely paralleled in history. The leaders ol Republican- 
ism, whose couuse s, if followed, would have saved the 
country, may be confronted by dungeons, gibbets, and 
exile, under the new policy which the save power, mad- 
dened by success, would dictate. 

Sir 1 , it 'is because of the remorseless despotism which De- 
mocratic policy would certainly establish thut I denounce 
it, and plead with the President 1 all the 

power of the Government, if he would save either his 
country or himself. The Republic of our fathers at this 
moment swings iu horrid alternation between life and death. 
To falter or hesitate now is self-destruction. Rose-water 
statesmanship will not meet the crisis. Nothing can save 
us but the earnestness which finds its reflox in tbe rebels, 
and the courage which gathers si: 1 air. A 

wise policy of the war is not enough. Proclamations of 
freedom will, of tl little. What wo 

need is action, instant, dec Sive, dl 
faithless men from power, sweeping away obstacles, arid 
kindling in the popular heart the fires ol u 1 ew courage and 
hopo. Toe Government should arm the colored men ofthg 

free States as well as the slaves of the South, and Hi ir iby 

give eifect to the proclamation of freedom. It should at 
once organize a bureau of emancipation, to take charge of 

ihe great interests devolved upon it by the extinction Of 
s.avery. While paying a 

loyal owners, it should digest an equitable, homestead poli- 
cy", parceling out tbe plantations of rebels in small farms 
for the enjoyment of the freed men, who have e U I 
r.ii to the soil by generations of oppression instead of 
Boiling it In large tracts to speculators, and thus laying tho 
foundation of a system of laud monopoly In the socuii 
scarcely less to be i'c ilored than slavery itself. It should 
Seize all pi < • i an- tn traitors, and use it in defray- 
ing the expenses of the war. I: should, as far as possible, 

send all disloyal persons b yond OUr lines. It should BBS to 
h thai Corrupt army COUtiaCtOrS are shot. It should deal 
with rebels as having no rights under tho Constitution, or 
by tho laws of war, but the right, to die. It should make 
war it* special occupation and study, using every weapon 
in 11s terrible armory in blasting, lorover, the organized 
diabolism which now employs all the enginery of hell in 
its work of national nun 1 tens to make our 

Country the grave of liberty on earth. Such an ear; 

thus born ol the unutterable guill ■ ad tbe peril 

bj a llrm 
faith iji the Justice of our cause and the smiles of our Maker, 
would sp' 

ivornment to tho 

ivorld. Our lib- 

iin pros 'ni destruction, and new 

pulsations of life would bo sent down through all the dom- 
ing generations of men. 



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