B 
 
 VVN. 
 
 

 TRAITORS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZERS. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 s §£Lof WAS* 
 
 HON. B. F. WADE, OF OHIO, E 2 458 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 April 21, 1*02. 
 
 Mr. WADE said : Mr. President, it was not my 
 purpose to have said one word on this occasion. 
 It is very rarely that an}- question can come for- 
 ward here that will provoke any reply from me. 
 
 •I have listened to the two hours' string of plati- 
 tudes which the gentleman has uttered here, to 
 which I have not one single word of reply. Thfij 
 are precisely such as every lawyer makes when 
 his client is on- trial on an indictment in 8 
 case. He always appeals to those great guaran- 
 tees of liberty that are so well provided for in the 
 English law. Every lawyer of very little practice 
 seems to understand how and when 10 invoke 
 them. To that part of the speech I have not one 
 word to say. I agree with him entirely,- I would 
 be the last man to raise my hand to break down 
 one single scintilla of those great barriers of right 
 and liberty to which he has so often alluded, and 
 which are household words to us all. He need 
 not have read his books, he need not have quoted 
 his authorities in an American Senate on those 
 points, because every man stands ready to sub- 
 scribe an amen to all the doctrines to which he 
 has alluded. 
 
 But, sir. he stepped a little beyond that course 
 of remark, and violently assailed the committee 
 of which I happen to be the chairman. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Will the Senator allow 
 me to ask one thing? 
 
 The PEES] DENT pro tempore. Does the Sen- 
 ator from Ohio yield the floor? 
 
 Mr. WADE. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. I shall probably leave 
 the Senate, but I Wish to ask the Senator a ques- 
 tion. I do not know that 1 have a right to inquire 
 whether this arrest was made at the instance of 
 the committee on the conduct of the war or not. 
 It has been stated so and rumored so. I under- 
 stand the responsibility is shifted from shoulder 
 to shoulder. I did not mean to say they had done 
 so, or to assail them. I know it was necessarily 
 done, according to my information, by a person 
 acting by the authority of the Secretary of War; 
 but I should like to be informed if it was not at 
 the instance of the committee on the conduct of 
 the war, for I should like to be able to think so 
 well of every member of the Senate as to relieve 
 myself of the suspicion that is on nay mind. I 
 did not charge it on the committee. I do not 
 know of my own knowledge that they have ever 
 done an unworthy or improper thing. 
 
 Mr. WADE. You ought to know. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Do not understand me 
 as doing anything more than trying to make 
 a form of inquiry by which I might be advi I, 
 in some form, why this great wrong has 
 done. 
 
 Mr. WADE. I did not yield the floor to be cat- 
 echised, but for an explanation, If the gentleman 
 had any to make. It turns out that instead of an 
 explanation and apology for what he has said, I 
 am to be catechised further on the subject. Now, 
 the Senator says he does not know what he has 
 been talking about. I did not suppose he did. 
 lie says he made the remark as a kind of fishing 
 argument to see if he could not draw out some- 
 thing from somebody that would give him some 
 light on this subject. 
 
 Mr. MrDoUUALL. That is my very object. I 
 have sought light on the subject with great labor 
 and industry. 
 
 Mr. WADE. The Senator in the course of his 
 remarks alluded to the committee of which 1 am 
 chairman. I cannot repeat exactly Hit words, 
 but it was to the effect that we had been made 
 use of, or that we practised stabbing men in the 
 dark; that we profess to have some kind of tes- 
 timony against men, and then throw it out to 
 their prejudice and the prejudice of their char- 
 acters. 1 demand of that Senator now specifi- 
 cally to tell me what he meant by it. Where 
 has it been done and by whom ? 
 
 Mr. M< DoUGALL. If I were aware that the 
 committee on the conduct of the war had been 
 responsible for this act, I should hare spoken 
 of that committee as I spoke of the person now 
 at the head of the War Department. 1 know by 
 informal ion that witnesses hare testified bei 
 your committee, because a gentleman told me 
 lie was going before the committee in relation 
 to this \ it. matter. 
 
 Mr. WADE. I want to knew specifically — 
 
 Mr. McD( lUGALL. Do you want to know the 
 man ? 
 
 Mr. WADE. I want to know personally and 
 specifically from that Senator when and where 
 it was that that committee threw out dark insin- 
 uations to wound the character of any man? 
 
 When, where, and how have they done it? 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. I did not state that the 
 committee on the conduct of the war had done 
 any such thing, and you will fir! I am not so 
 reported. 
 
 Mr. WADE, then I entirely misunderstood 
 
the Senator, for I understood a charge of that 
 kind to hare been made. I am glad to hear that 
 the gentleman says now that he has made no 
 su»h charge, for I know that no such charge can 
 bts sustained. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. I am glad to hear that 
 also. 
 
 Mr. WADE. Why glad to hear it, sir ? You 
 never heard the contrary; never, never. While 
 you throw out dark insinuations against the 
 committee, I ask of you to be specific, or to 
 ulpate them from the charge you have made. 
 State wherein they have stabbed any man in 
 the dark. I can tell the Senator the course of 
 that committee towards General Stone — not that 
 I mean to be provoked under any considerations 
 into a discussion of the merits or demerits of 
 that gentleman here. This is not the tribunal 
 ire whom he can be arraigned and tried. 
 Eowever, as many allusions have been thrown 
 out in the Senate against the committee of which 
 I, without any seeking of my own, was made the 
 chairman, (for I had nothing to do with the rais- 
 ing of the committee.) I perhaps owe it to the 
 committee and to myself to state the course of 
 proceeding we have adopted. We have assailed 
 no man. We have gone forth in the spirit of the 
 resolution that created us a committee to inquire 
 into the manner in which this war has been con- 
 ducted ; to ascertain by the best evidence and 
 the best lights we could wherein there was any- 
 thing in which we could aid the Administration 
 in the prosecution of this war, and wherever 
 there was a delinquency, that we might ferret 
 it out, apprize the x\.dministration of it, and de- 
 mand a remedy. I suppose it was for that pur- 
 pose that the committee was created with the 
 immense powers that were devolved upon it. I 
 do not say whether it was wise or unwise to 
 create su%h a committee. The Senator from New 
 York [.Mr. ll.viuus] yesterday said he thought it 
 exceedingly unwise, because the committee, as 
 he supposed, were conducting the war; that is, 
 placing the armies in the field, and dictating the 
 policy bfthe war. We did not construe our pow- 
 ers in that way. We knew that in the vast busi- 
 ness that pertained to the executive branch of 
 the Government, it was impossible for them to 
 look into everything connected with the conduct 
 of the war which they would like to know and 
 which it was most essential to the country that 
 Haey should know. Therefore, having leisure to 
 inquire into many alleged abuses that they had 
 no power or no time to investigate, we took it 
 upon ourselves to investigate them, and. I Bay 
 with a discretion and with a solicitude 
 t i injure no man that has never been exceeded 
 i any investigation of any committee on God's 
 earth. 
 
 Sir, we have not published what we have us- 
 ined to any mortal man except to those 
 
 who wen- an 1 w ith (fee power of administering 
 
 emedy, \o idle curiosity lias prompted any 
 <•>■ of that committee to proclaim to the 
 world tinlonj thai was be- 
 
 lt. I challenge the Senate, and every man 
 of it. to tell me which member of the committee 
 or where have we made known to the public 
 what was going on before as. I admit that as 
 we ascertained facto, the existence of malprac- 
 
 tices, short-comings, and things inconsistent with 
 the proper and beneficial conduct of the war, we 
 have sought interviews with the President of 
 the United States, we have sought them with the 
 .Secretary of War, and on some occasions with 
 the whole Cabinet, and there in secret have dis- 
 closed the testimony that has come to ns, and we 
 have endeavored to, work out a redress, and in 
 innumerable instances I know we have done it, 
 where, had it not been for that so-much maligned 
 committee, the Administration would have been 
 entirely ignorant of what was going on. Pat- 
 riotic as they are, vigilant as they are, anxious 
 as they are to ascertain the truth on all subjects, 
 they are not invested with omniscience, and with 
 six hundred thousand men in the field and in- 
 numerable officers, it may sometimes happen 
 that there may be an unworthy one in that num- 
 ber without their being - aware of it. We have 
 endeavored on all occasions to enlighten them, 
 but not to stab any man in the dark, as I under- 
 stood the gentleman. to insinuate, but which he 
 backs out of now, and says he did not intend any 
 such thing or did not say any such thing. 
 
 Now, with regard to General Stone, we are 
 not the tribunal that ought to try him. I do not 
 believe we should be put in possession of that 
 kind of testimony that tends to implicate him. 
 Ivdo not believe that it would be my duty either 
 to* the public or to General Stone here in the 
 Senate to proclaim to the world all the testimony 
 that came before the committee on the conduct 
 of the war. But this much in exculpation of 
 the Executive I will say in general terms, in order 
 to repel the insinuations of the Senator from 
 California: I will say here in my place that there 
 was. and is, probable cause for the arrest of Gen- 
 eral Stone. I am not going to detail the evi- 
 dence. I regret that it becomes necessary that 
 I should say anything in public on the subject. 
 I had rather trust it with those whom the Con- 
 stitutiou and the law charge with the execution 
 of this matter ; but his indiscreet friend will drag 
 it out here; and I say, then, in behalf of that 
 abused Executive, that there is probable cause 
 tor his arrest. 
 
 We are tyrannical — the nation is tyrannical, 
 says the gentleman,- and he quotes authorities 
 from nations at war v, ith each other where there 
 is no suspicion of treason; where all is loyalty 
 on both sides; where nations have national feel- 
 ings sufficient to repress everything favoring the 
 adversary, and to bring forward everything fa- 
 voring their own nation, lie cites these prcee- 
 dents to enlighten us in the midst of a civil rev- 
 olution, "where traitors are in qur midst, where 
 you cannot walk thestreets without meeting men 
 \\ hose hearts are opposed to the prosecution of 
 this war. No. sir : you cannot go through the 
 Executive Departments but you meet with vio- 
 lent enemies of the Government you are en- 
 deavoring to maintain. lie reads precedents 
 from English history to show the forbearance of 
 that nation in times of civil strife. I wonder 
 that tin- reading of that did nor carry him bach 
 
 to the time when England was involved in civil 
 war. If it had. would he not be astonished at 
 the mildness and forbearance of the <io\ernmcnt 
 in the course it has pursued towards these trai- 
 tor- in our midst? Sir. if you look at the old 
 
records during those troublesome times, yon will I caution, and with all this pretended tyranny, 
 find that men on Blight*! e\ iueiiee than would j you have not been able, as yet, to conci 
 impeach the gentleman were hung up by the knowledge of the most important e?:peditio 
 neck until they were dead, and yet he lauds the \ your armies and your intended movement 
 mildness of the .British Government. It is a re- the enemy as soon as your own people po 
 markable fact, and I fear not entirely to our it, the man who stands up for a rigid execution 
 credit either, that while we have been involved of the habeqs corpus and the law, a,- in time of 
 in this great rebellion, while this generation are peace, is but a sympathizer with them. While 
 taxed, and future generations will be taxed to 1 am up, let me say that in times of revol 
 the utmost of their capacity to defend them-elves, and rebellion like this, when whole States 
 while this ungodly war was waged against the come out and proclaimed their intention I" de- 
 beat Government on God's earth, and it has coat stray the life of our glorious Government, 
 the most precious blood of this nation to repel wln-n they have their martial hosts in the 
 the insurrection, after one whole year has passed Held, bent on its destruction, I undersi 
 by, there has not yet been made a single example them to be entirely absolved from the pro- 
 of treason, not one; no attempt to take the life, tecting a>gis of the Constitution. " 
 nay, e von the property, of the hellish traitor that renounced it utterly. They have struc] ■■ : 
 has caused the sacrifice of our dearest and mosfUlife. They would take your heart's blood. 
 precious blood. proclaim themselves ready to do it. And yet, 
 
 Sir, the man who invokes the Constitution in sir, you are to treat them with lenity ! Your 
 
 forbearance of the law to punish traitors is him 
 self a sympathizer. There never was a man 
 who stood up in this Senate from the time when 
 Mr. Breckinridge preached daily in favor of con-j 
 
 Constitution prescribes that no u shall be 
 
 deprived of his life, or despoiled of his goods, 
 without due process of law. it guaranties to 
 every man the right of life, liberty, and propr 
 
 stitutional guarantees until now, and set up con- crty; but are you not compelled to advance into 
 stitutional barriers against punishment for trea- his country with your armies, to plant your can- 
 non, and destroy him by whole armies together? 
 Is that constitutional? My secession friend, if 
 man than that he is invoking the forbearance of there is any such here, why do you nut invoke 
 the Constitution and the great barriers in favor ' the Constitution in opposition to our cannon and 
 of American liberty to protect an infernal traitor i our musketry against these rebels ? The Consti- 
 in his course, to know that he is a sympathizer, tution protects their rights. You do not invoke 
 Our Administration is assailed because, not hav- it on the field of battle. You do not summon a 
 ing the technical evidence in their possession to jury. You do not try him there by jury, as the 
 bring a man to trial and judgment of death, they ■■ Constitution says you shall. Why do "you not 
 do not let him go at large to plot against the life carry your doctrines to their legitimate end? 
 of the Government. Why stop short? Does the Senator from Galifor- 
 
 Mr. President, I have said a great deal more ' nia pretend that when our hosts march in battle 
 than I intended ; but the theme is a very fruitful array, and meet those of the enemy, and it is life 
 one. A tyranny exists here, it is said. Sir, is it against life, we should summon a jury before we 
 not most manifest to everybody that from the ! begin to shoot, and s°e whether they had coin- 
 time when this treason broke out, when we had j mitted actual rebellion? Your Constitution says 
 traitors in this Senate proclaiming their treason ' their lives shall not be taken without due pn 
 on this floor, when they conspired to take the of law. I ask you, caviler about the Constitution, 
 life of your President on his waj- to the capital, where is the law for it? 
 when they beset your regiments coming here for , Sir, no jurist yet has had the folly to at 
 no other purpose than to defend your capital, to limit the powers that a man may use in de- 
 until now, every scintilla of information that fence of his own life when assailed : and so no 
 your Executive has is communicated to traitors statesman will attempt to limit the power that a 
 on the other side of the river as soon as it is to I nation may use when the life of the nation is 
 the people on this side. The Administration assailed. There is no limit to it. You have a 
 have attempted to put that down ; they have not right to go forward in an individual case in your 
 succeeded; and yet the Senator stands there and might, and if your life is sought, any force, any 
 says you should not arrest a scoundrel when you power, anything that you may do honestly in 
 know his heart is with the enemy, but who mean- defence of your own life, the law pronoun 
 ly skulks from overt acts in their favor ; you ' justifiable act. So, when the life of the nation 
 should not imprison him. you should not restrain is assailed by vile traitors embodied in military 
 him ; but you must let it all go, and permit the array for its destruction, tie;, are beyond all 
 enemy to be perfectly cognizant of every expeili- law, they have repudiated all law, and the na- 
 tion and of every move you make. lam sorry t ion. in defence of its Constitution, it- Union, 
 that the Senator does not remain on this floor and its flag, may resort to any ,; God 
 
 and meet the consequences of his insinuations Almighty has put into their hands honestly to 
 against the Administration and against the com-, maintain tiieir constitutional rights. I know verv 
 mittee. ■ jwell that small lawyers ma; gel up on the i 
 
 Sir, it is perfectly manifest that if persons are greal questions of statesmanship and pettifi 
 shut up in dungeons, and restrained of their lib- a man would to screen a felon before a justice > f 
 erty, it is that the Constitution may live. I know the peace, and place his arguments on those nar- 
 it is not in accordance with the principles of our row principles of constitutional law. He may 
 Constitution. In ordinary times it could not for I require all the presumptions of innocence that 
 a moment be tolerated; but when, with all your | arc so often resorted to to shield a culprit from 
 
the punishment of his crime. It is done here. 
 But, sir, the man whose life is assailed does not 
 summon a jury, and the nation whose life is 
 assailed by traitors need not summon a jury. 
 AJ1 you want is the power, honestly exercised, 
 to put it down. 
 
 Let me say, in passing-, that every word and 
 every syllable that the Senator invoked in favor 
 of General Stone might have been just as well, 
 and with more propriety and more strength, 
 urged in favor of Jeff. Davis to-day. He- had played 
 a very important part in .Mexico; he had held 
 high offices under your Constitution ; and all the 
 thai the gentleman resorted to to 
 shield General Stone would be infinitely strong- 
 er in ; I Jeff. Davis to-day. Lucifer was 
 once a brighl angel in heaven; but he fell, and 
 he lias not been much honored in that quarter 
 since. [Laughter;] 
 
 Sir, 1 am tired of hearing these arguments in 
 favor of traitors. The Constitution takes their 
 live-, their property, their all. Why shall we stop 
 short? Are they not in quest of ours? If there 
 is any stain on the present Administration, it is 
 that they have been weak enough to deal too len- 
 iently with these traitors. I know it sprang from 
 goodness of heart; it sprung from the best of mo- 
 tives : but, sir, as a method of putting down this 
 i llion, mercy to traitors is cruelty to loyal 
 men. Look into the seceded State-, and see 
 thousands of loyal men there coerced into their 
 armies to run the hazard of their lives, and 
 placed in the damnable position of perjured 
 traitor? by force of arms. If there is a man there 
 bold enough to maintain his integrity in the 
 face of these infernal powers, do they scruple to 
 take his Life, his property, his all? Sir, by your 
 merciful course you have paid a premium to 
 treasoii. and made it almost impossible that a 
 loyal man in the seceded States can maintain 
 himself at all. Those States are overrun fre- 
 lawless bands of rebels, who do not 
 Bcrupli fmenl to take their property and 
 
 their Lives, and treat them with every indignity 
 and i :. that a perverse ingenuity can 
 
 invent : but, on the other hand, when our armies 
 com< . they deal quite as leniently with 
 
 the traitor as with the loyal man. What teaches 
 human nature? A man, having solely a regard 
 to hi If-interest, living in one of those com- 
 muniti undoubtedly reason thus: "I 
 
 be a traitor; I must co-operate 
 witi: if their lawless bands overrun 
 
 ountrj I inhabit, if 1 show any Union senti- 
 to the old Constitution and the 
 old flag, 1 shall lose not only my lite, but all I 
 bile, on tii'- i>ther hand, if the Fed- 
 ■ un the country, they are so len- 
 ient the traitor as I am 
 will i ti\y my life, but my property, 
 and all I have." Sir, the rule is as impolitic as 
 STou should carry -the avenging 
 i along with your armies, and smite tri 
 
 and smite treason, and put it down, and yield 
 
 ■lion to honest, Loyal men. Until you 
 
 ; that com ill war in vain. Mr. 
 
 Cor one, I say let us go forward 
 
 i and traitCtS ; let us put down 
 this rebellion at all hazards. If, in doinj 
 your darling institution must go under, 1 shall 
 
 not regret it. If it must come to this, that the 
 Union and slavery cannot live together, let 
 slavery die the death, for the Constitution, the 
 Union, and the time-honored old flag shall live 
 forever. • 
 
 Sir, I have been in the Senate for some consid- 
 erable time, and I should have been an exceed- 
 ingly dull man if I had not learned the course of 
 defence that is constantly set up here for those 
 who have assailed the institutions of our country. 
 There is an unvarying course of remark that they 
 indulge in. so that no man need lie mistaken as 
 to What they intend. Those who assail the Ad- 
 ministration on account of what they call tyranny 
 to men sympathizing with traitors, never to my 
 knowledge, open their mouths on this floor in 
 condemnation of the men who have risen in arms 
 and are endeavoring to murder your Constitution 
 and your Government. Towards them they are 
 as mild as sucking doves. You will find one 
 1 ear-mark among them all; and that is to 
 assail those who are opposed to traitors and en- 
 deavor to bring them to condign punishment; 
 but you will never hear a lisp from one of their 
 mouths in opposition to the men who are now 
 with arms in their hands assailing our institu- 
 tions and our Government. AVhile the Senator, 
 in his long and elaborate speech, has accused 
 everybody else, have you heard a word from his 
 mouth against the men who are now in arms en- 
 deavoring to overthrow your Government? 2\'ot 
 one syllable. Sir, you may know all these men 
 from this circumstance' they are the men who 
 cry peace, peace, when they know there can be 
 no honorable peace. Since the Senator — if the 
 papers report him aright; and 1 see no contradic- 
 tion of it — descended from his honorable position 
 on this floor and weat into secret conclave with 
 those who sympathize with traitors for the avow- 
 ed purpose of reconstructing' the Democratic 
 party, he and all those who co-operate with him 
 throughout the land have violently assailed the 
 administration of the Government, and especially 
 are they opposed to the proceedings of the Sec- 
 retary of War. There is a premeditated attack 
 of the whole party upon the Administration. In 
 the first place, they assail them as tyrants, as op- 
 us, as Constitutiofa-breakers; and external- 
 ly, out of this circle, they are arraigning those 
 who have acted in the Administration before 
 your judicial tribunals. Witness the late attack 
 upon our late Secretary of War. General Came- 
 ron. It is but the commencement of proceed- 
 ings well understood by that party in order to 
 a — ail ami to intimidate the agents of the Gov- 
 ernment through thejudii iary, . i overawe them, 
 to prevent them doing their -tern duty to trait- 
 I suppose, that tln-y who can 
 
 make Dred Scott deci 11 be willing to 
 
 lend their official influence tor the purpose of 
 trampling under fcot 'ei boldly 
 
 forth to defend the Constitution and the laws. 
 
 'l'lie committee of which i happen to be a 
 member is in the same category, and we are to 
 be assailed oh all occasions. Wa\ ? I am proud 
 that '• 'led from tb It shows 
 
 that our shots sometime- tell. Who are they 
 
 who rise up ami assail the committee on the 
 
 OOndud of the war? Are the\ men who are 
 eager to trample this rebellion underfoot? Are 
 
they the men who have shown a disposition and I 
 a zeal to put down rebellion? No, sir. I am j 
 happv that we are assailed iti such excellent 
 company as that of the President and Secretary 
 of War. I care not who they are. nor where 
 they are: whoever shows a zeal for patting down 
 this rebellion will find that he is in the category 
 to be assailed by this new organization torecon- I 
 struct the Government. 
 
 Now, let tee ask who are these gentlemen that i 
 • are to reconstruct the Democratic party and the 
 Government? What kind of an alliance is to be 
 formed, and with whom, in this reconstruction? 
 I am sorry I do not see the Senator from Califor- 
 nia here, because 1 know, from the position he 
 holds towards those who make these assaults, 
 he would be able to give us light on the subject. 
 I accuse them of a deliberate purpose to assail, 
 through the judicial tribunals, and through tin 
 Senate and the House of Representatives of the 
 United States, and everywhere else, and to over- 
 awe, intimidate, and trample under foot, if they 
 can, the men who boldly stand forth in defence 
 of their country, now imperiled by this gigantic 
 rebellion. I have watched it long. I have seen 
 it in secret. I have seen its movements ever 
 since that party got together, with a colleague of 
 mine in the other House as chairman of the com- 
 mittee on resolutions — a man who never had any 
 sympathy with this Republic, but whose every 
 breath is devoted to its destruction, just as far as 
 his heart dare permit him to go. 
 
 What have the committee, who have been tints 
 assailed, done, that should call down upon them 
 the anathemas of the Senator from California, 
 or should compare them, as well as the President 
 and Secretary of War, to grand inquisitors, sit- 
 ting behind the backs of men to get up accusa- 
 tions by which they are to be tortured and de- 
 stroyed at the stake? Sir, I grant you we have 
 a zeal. yea. a determination, so far as it lies in 
 our power, that this Government shall be main- 
 tained, that treason shall be put down at all 
 hazards-tend by any means that God Almighty 
 has put iii our hands. [Manifestations of ap- 
 plause in the galleries.] No accusation of ty- 
 ranny, no comparing us with inquisitorial tribu- 
 nals, no mawkish sensibility in behalf of traitors, 
 will have the effect to deter us from our resolute 
 determination to put treason under our feet and 
 bring back the Government to its old glorious 
 bearings. Notwithstanding all the whining in 
 this body or outside of it. in your courts or any- 
 where else, this will be done. 
 
 Sir, v, e have heard all these arguments before. 
 We learned this tune a year ago from those who 
 are now in the so-called Confederate States. 
 They were always crying out about violations of 
 the Constitution, ami ever ready to invoke it in 
 aid of treason. That was the course of remark 
 from the lips of every one who deserted his post 
 and went out an open enemy to your Constitu- 
 tion and your laws. Sir, 1 remember well when 
 Mr. Breckinridge, stood on the other side of the 
 Chamber, ■ king this same kind 
 
 of speeches, accusing us of being violators of 
 the Constitution of the United States; and inas- 
 much as we plainly had the right to coerce trai- 
 tors, to put down treason by force of arms, he 
 stood there to deprecate it, and to invoke the Con- 
 
 stitution as a barrier against loyal men. The 
 argument Ave have heard to-day is but a repe- 
 tition of those we heard a year ago. I could 
 bring the arguments made then on this floor by 
 traitors who are now in open rebellion; and 
 they would make no discord with the speech we 
 have just heard. 
 
 But. I ask again, what has this committee done 
 to lie complained of in the matter of General 
 . who lies at the bottom of this resolution 
 and of all the Senator's remarks ? Sir, early 
 in this session it pleased both Houses of Con- 
 to raise a committee empowered and di- 
 l to inquire into the conduct of this war. I 
 it no position upon that committee ; I had 
 nothing to do with getting it up ; but when it 
 Mas raised, being placed at its head, 1 east about, 
 as did the rest of the committee, to ascertain 
 how we could make ourselvi ;s mosl useful to the 
 Government in the exercise of the vast powers 
 which it had been the pleasure of Congress to 
 confer upon us. We instituted a pretty broad 
 inquiry into public affairs, and especially into 
 the manner in which this war had been con- 
 ducted, and among other things we were spe- 
 cially directed byname to look into thai great, 
 terrible blunder and catastrophe, the affair of 
 Ball's Bluff. If, in that investigation winch you 
 commanded us to make, it turned out that there 
 was an appearance of disloyalty in the com- 
 mander-in-chief, was it not legitimate for us to 
 inquire into it? The Senator seems to think 
 not. He considers that we were travelling 
 greatly out of our way when we took evidence 
 tending to criminate General Stone, at the head 
 of a division of your army on the very frontiers 
 next to the enemy; that we hail no right to look 
 into it. Your soldiers had been slaughtered by 
 hundreds, like cattle taken to the shambles, ap- 
 parently under circumstances deeply impeach- 
 ing somebody that had the command. I do not 
 rise with any purpose to argue that matter, as I 
 told you before, not because I could not make 
 out my case as I believe, but because you are not 
 the triers, nor am I the Attorney General to pros- 
 ecute the case before you ; but it is my purpose to 
 state enough of that proceeding, not to justify, 
 but to. make the action of that committee trium- 
 phant before this nation. 1 repeat again what I 
 said the other day, that if there ever was a com- 
 mittee that proceeded with discretion, with mo- 
 deration, with a care and forbearance that no 
 man should be injured, it is the committee of 
 whom I am chairman, and of whose action I am 
 proud. We are an Inquisition forsooth ! The 
 gentleman assailed the committee long before he 
 knew anything of its action. He accused us of 
 proceeding txparte, getting a kind of illegitimate 
 testimony, going forward with that ami present- 
 ing it to the Administration to the detriment of 
 innocent men. I will ask the Secretary to read 
 this synopsis of our proceedings to justify the 
 committee from all the imputations the Senator 
 has made. 
 
 The Secretary read, as fill. 
 
 January 29, 1862, the com rmed the Secretary 
 
 of War that they bad been ihforft CleUa 
 
 that General Stone was Id this cay. iM that be (General 
 an) was of the opinion that Qeneral Stone should 
 appear before the committee In regard to the matters laid 
 to his charge, and the committee iutbniiol the Secretary of 
 
6 
 
 War that they were willing to hear General Stone at any 
 time. 
 
 On January 31, 1862, General Stone appeared before the 
 committei- the second tune, was informed of the nature of 
 the evidence bearing against him, and was allowed to pro- 
 ceed ami make hi? nwn explanation in his own way. 
 
 The committee then appointed a sub-committee to wait 
 upon Ifae Secretary of War, and inform him that there was a 
 conflict Hi testimony in relation to General Stone, and to 
 communicate to him whit that testimony was. 
 
 Mr. WADE. That, sir, is the inquisitorial 
 course we have taken with General Stone. As 
 he was likely to be implicated in the Ball's Bluff 
 affair, he was one of the early witnesses that we 
 called in. We were not inquiring into the eon- 
 duct of any individual. That was not what we 
 were placed there, as we believed, to do. It was 
 not our construction of the powers that were 
 granted to us. We were to inquire into the facts 
 connected with the conduct of the war, and it 
 there were short-comings or delinquencies that 
 might light upon anybody's head, we were not 
 to direct it; we sought no evidence to impeach 
 any man, and if the evidence seemed to impinge 
 on the credibility, the loyalty, or the character 
 of any man. we sought that man, and laid before 
 him the course of the evidence, and the matters 
 wherein he was inculpated. We did the same to 
 General Stone. We summoned him before us to 
 give an account of that affair at Ball's Bluff, to 
 give us all the information he could on the sub- 
 ject, and alter that, as you see from our records, 
 the much applauded chief of your Army, whom 
 the Senator believes to be immaculate and above 
 the suspicion of anybody, was the very man that 
 knocked at our doors to inform us that, in his 
 judgment, it was our duty to summon General 
 Stone again before us, and we accommodated 
 him. We did not want any more testimony than 
 we had got, but if General Stone had any new 
 light to throw on the subject, we. as an impartial 
 committee, were not only willing, but anxious 
 that he should appear before us. He did appear 
 before us. I will not say that in his amended 
 testimony he made the case infinitely worse than 
 it was before. I will not go into that, for I do 
 not want to inculpate him unless he is guilty. 
 Sir, we have done Genera] Stone no harm ; 
 none at all. If be is an innocent man, his 
 own testimony stands forth as his justifica- 
 tion. If we have informed the President, the 
 Secretary of War. and the Cabinet of the testi- 
 mony that seemed bo impeach him, we also 
 showed his own exculpation at the same time. 
 and then, at the in-tauce of this immaculate 
 
 commander of ours, we received Genera] Stone 
 again, and went through the whole tiling. 
 
 Where is the accuser of that committee? I 
 hope he has not skedaddled after making his 
 
 Speech. We are an inquisition, arc we? We n 
 
 to be impeached by the Senator from California. 
 Why ? If in the course of our investigations we 
 
 ascertained that there was a traitor in the camp, 
 and wen not to make it known, in (bid's name 
 
 what business had we in the committee ; what 
 business had we in the Senate: what busi 
 had w '■ in the United Sta as private 
 
 citizens? The gentleman said on Wedne 
 last thai ii was the deepest, the most disgrace- 
 ful thing lie ever had beard of. lie seemed to 
 regret thai it had been his fortune to get into a 
 lace where lie had to associate with men BO de- 
 
 praved ; for that is a fair construction of what 
 he said. Sir, I imagine he worked hard to get 
 here; and I do not think he is polluted by the 
 contact at all. I consider it to be a part of my 
 senatorial duty here, if I happen to know that a 
 man holding a high office is disloyal, where his 
 disloyalty might prejudice the public, to make it 
 known without being on any committee espe- 
 cially detailed for that purpose. And yet the 
 Senator thinks it is deeply disgraceful to do so ! 
 That is his idea of toleration towards traitors 
 whom he never assails, or speaks a word in dis- 
 paragement of. 
 
 Now, sir, as I said before, I have listened to 
 this kind of defence of traitors long enough. 
 What has the Administration done that this gen- 
 tleman should rise here in the Senate and brand 
 them as tyrants and despots and inquisitors, and 
 tell us he is going to run a parallel between the 
 President and Secretary of War and the old in- 
 quisition ? Why. sir, only think of the perfect 
 burlesque I The President of the United States, 
 who neither by word or deed or thought would 
 harm a hair of any man's head, who. of all men 
 I know-, is the most reluctant to offend anybody, 
 but who, as a patriot, is anxious to vindicate the 
 Constitution of the United States and the Gov- 
 ernment he has sworn to support — and Ire does it 
 with a toleration and a mildness towards these 
 traitors that has met with the censure of many 
 good men, who think he does not go far enough — 
 this mild, equitable, just man is to be branded 
 here, by a Knight of the Golden Circle, with 
 being a grand inqnisitpr, armed with tyranny, 
 whose purpose it is to destroy the rights and 
 property and the lives of men ! Sir. the thing 
 is absolutely ridiculous, and would not become 
 any Senator on this floor, unless he was com- 
 |i -lh sd in do so by joining this new-fangled organ- 
 ization, whose purpose it is, we are told, to re- 
 construct the Democratic party. 1 believe I 
 asked the gentleman what kind of reconstruction 
 it was to be. The old Breckinridge-Buchanan 
 party south of Mason and Dixon's line are, to a 
 man. traitors. There arc no exceptions. 1 defy 
 any Senator to rise in his place and tell me what 
 Buchanan-Breckinridge Democrat south of Ma- 
 son and Dixon's line is not an open and avowed 
 traitor, committing overt acts, and. under the 
 Constitution of the United States, condemned to 
 death. Their Northern sympathizers are but 
 little better: indeed they arc worse — worse be- 
 cause they arc not so bold. There is something 
 in a bold, courageous man, even in a bad cause, 
 that seems to give him a little righl to to] 
 t ii in : but your miserable sneaking hypocrite that 
 sympathises with him. and yet has not the cour- 
 
 to commit the crime, can expect nothing 
 
 but to be despised by honorable men. Now, 
 
 men are goin : to reconstruct a pi rty. My 
 • bid. what a party it will be! .Just think of it : 
 the Southern Buchanan traitors reconstructing 
 with the Breckinridge traitors of the North! 
 They will be harmonious just as far as their 
 courage will permit them to go together. They 
 will not differ on anything else but as to the 
 
 length to which they can earn their proceed- 
 
 I'.iit, sir, there was salt in the old IVnioeratic 
 party. They do not talk of reconstructing with 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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