statesman. Make the community of interest one by guarantying the equal rights of all men before the law, and the fidelity of every inhabitant of such a commonwealth becomes a necessity not only from interest but from a love of justice.

Sir, this Congress is writing a new chapter in American history. Let every man whose great privilege it is to record his name where it will stand forever, so record it as to secure the triumph of justice, and his name and memory shall have a life coequal with the Republic.

Sir, he who has comprehended the logic of the terrible conflict through which we have passed and studied with profit the lessons which it has taught, will have learned the point at which in our great march as a nation we have reached, and know something of the course which in the future it will travel.

Animated for many years by conflicting, sectional, hostile forces, I have lived to see since my entrance into Congress these antagonistic views so modified and melted into one that to-day the condition is accepted by all patriotic, right-thinking men, and the historian without confusion can make up the record. If this war has taught us any one lesson more clearly than another, it is that we are inseparably one people, that this continent can never again become the abode of human slavery, and that in all our future deliberations in these Halls old antagonisms will cease to divide us, and our hopes and aspirations become one, because our interests are

one.

Let this measure, or those which the Senate may perfect, pass and go into the Constitution of the country; let the propositions before us become the law of the land, and you wili have done something toward securing the triumph of justice. Pass these acts, and justice as a flaming sword will stand at the doors of the nation's council halls to guard its sanctuary from the presence of traitors. Pass them, and he who approaches this temple of liberty shall pause at the threshold before entering and swear eternal fidelity to the republic.

Let these propositions pass and the proposed amendment of the Constitution become part of our fundamental law, and a generation shall not pass away before witnessing the com

plete enfranchisement of every freeman and the entire abolition of all class legislation.

In this faith and with this hope, believing that Providence in the future as in the past will overrule all for our good and supply where we have failed, I am prepared to give my voice and my vote for whatever measure a majority of the loyal members of the American Congress may adopt for the restoration of the States lately in rebellion.

SPEECH

OF HON. JAMES M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 26, 1867.

RECONSTRUCTION.

The House having under consideration House bill No. 543, to restore to the States lately in insurrection their full political rights

Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, said:

MR. SPEAKER: I am opposed to the motion of my colleague to refer the bill now under consideration, with the pending amendments, to the joint Committee on Reconstruction. I am also opposed to the motion which the gentleman from Pennsylvania gave notice of the other day, to lay these bills on the table. I hope the motion to refer them, or lay them on the table, will not be adopted. If either of these motions should prevail it would operate practically as a declaration on the part of the House that no action may be expected during the remainder of this Congress upon the great question of reconstruction. I accept the suggestion of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and now withdraw my amendment to his substitute; and, so far as I can, I will sustain the motion which he proposes to make on Monday, that the House consider these bills as in Committee of the Whole under the five-minute rule, and try to perfect a bill so as to be able to send it to the Senate within the next two or three days.

Gentlemen at all familiar with the legislation of the House, and the manner in which its business is now blocked out, will comprehend at once that unless some speedy action is had by the House, and the bill sent to the Senate, so that

they may have time to examine it, and to review the veto message in case it shall come in, during the life of this Thirty-ninth Congress, there can be no act passed which will bring relief to the loyal men of the South or carry out the pledges which the Thirty-ninth Congress made to the country and to the loyal men of the South, that loyal and constitutional State governments should be established there on the reassembling of Congress.

As the gentleman from Pennsylvania has just remarked, there are but twenty working-days practically left of this session. The Thirty-ninth Congress went to the country in opposition to the policy of the President, and to what we were pleased to denominate his usurpations. The people in generous confidence have sustained Congress and returned to the Fortieth Congress by majorities unprecedented men pledged to the abolition of the governments established by the acting President of the United States, in violation of al law, and, as I claim, in clear violation of the Constitution. A large majority on this side of the House were returned to the next Congress under the express pledge that they would not permit these rebel State governments to exist a single hour after this Congress had been in session long enough to declare them abolished. If this Congress fails to redeem that pledge it will commit a blunder which, in such an hour as this, is worse than a crime.

MR. CONKLING. I ask the gentleman to state his objection to having a subject like this, with regard to which a number of bills have been brought forward, committed to a committee which has now no work upon its hands and which has a right to report at any time.

MR. ASHLEY, of Ohio. My answer to the gentleman from New York is, that the Committee on Reconstruction have held no meetings during this entire session up to this hour. Several bills proposed by gentlemen have been referred to that committee during this session upon which they have taken no action. If the committee ever gets together again, which I doubt, as it is a large committee composed of both branches of Congress, I have but little hope of their being able to agree. The chairman of the committee on the part of the Senate, as is well known, is absorbed in his efforts

to perfect the financial measures of the country, and I fear that if this bill goes to that committee it will go to its grave, and that it will not during the life of the Thirty-ninth Congress see the light. If I were opposed to these bills I would vote to send them to that committee as sending them to their tomb. That is my answer to the gentleman from New York. MR. CONKLING. I do not know whether the gentleman from Ohio would like my opinion as to whether that is a good

answer or not.

MR. ASHLEY, of Ohio. I have no objection to the gentleman giving his opinion.

MR. CONKLING. I think it is not very good considering that it comes from such a distinguished source. There is no difficulty in having prompt consideration of anything which may be sent to the committee. It was created originally solely to deal with this subject. It was at first broken into four sub-committees that the work of gathering evidence might be more advantageously and speedily carried on. It became one committee, usually working together, only during a few weeks immediately preceding the bringing forward of its ultimate propositions. It would not be decorous for me to praise the committee or the work it did; but I may say with propriety that if it ever was a good committee, if it ever should have been created and composed as it was, it is a good committee now-better than it ever was before; better, because more familiar with this subject, because its members having now become acquainted with each other's views, and having become accustomed to act with each other, and having studied the whole subject committed to them, can proceed with much more hope of good results than ever before. Having a right to report at any time, and being led on the part of this House, by the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], I see no reason why it cannot consider and digest wisely and promptly whatever may be referred to it and make report.

I did not intend to say one word about this, and do not intend to rise again in regard to it. I beg now to say, however, that I hope the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Bingham] will not withdraw his motion to refer this whole subject to