worked a greater miracle than the preaching of Peter."

Mr. Deming was followed by Mr. Smith of Kentucky, who warned the Republican party against the adoption of Negro suffrage. He avowed his willingness to maintain the freedom of the negroes, to teach them to be intelligent and virtuous, to insure their rights of property, liberty and life. On the 27th, Mr. Baker of Illinois spoke eloquently of the grand purpose of the loyal people to demand security for the future. "That purpose," he said, "is strong because it is allied to patriotism, justice, humanity; because it recognizes progress as well as order; because it is the will of God, expressed in historic form, and working out the historic ends of the Republic. It will not be thwarted of these ends, sir! No power in the nation, official or other, is strong enough to stand before it and turn it back. It demands that the old reign of brotherly love based upon infernal injustice shall cease, and cease effectually. It demands that the character of the American citizen shall no more be degraded nor his patriotism corrupted by being required to surrender his conscience as a peace-offering to either an imperious or a suing aristocracy of class. It demands that the honor of the nation shall not be soiled with base ingratitude by abandoning our southern allies who have done so much by strong arms and patriotic sympathy to turn the scale of the conflict in our favor―abandoning them, sir, to the bullet, the

knife, the halter, the scourge, the cruel code, the enforced ignorance, and compulsory poverty which the bitter 'grudge' that is owed them will so surely bring upon their unprotected heads.

Then, sir, we shall have built our house upon a rock, and not upon moving quicksand. Then the blood that has flowed and the hearts that have broken and died in this terrible war for liberty and nationality, shall come forth from the ground and the grave and bless the hand of the builder! Oh, I warn you, sir, I warn you, that when conservatives make haste liberty is in danger! It is for a purpose, and to the cost of humanity, that they seek to violate the fixed maxims of their conduct and the ingrained principles of their life. When fighting against the birth of new liberties-as they so strangely love to fight; when holding back the hand that would lift a burden from the quivering heart of the downtrodden poor-as they so cruelly love to hold-they are fond of telling us after Linnæus, "There are no leaps in nature;' and after Bacon, 'Time is the great innovater, but he innovateth slowly.' But now, when a very little time is needed to concrete the fruits of this great struggle-to ripen the blood of the martyred dead into a sure and everlasting heritage of liberty to all the people-the eagle hasteneth not more swiftly to

his

prey, than do these same conservatives to dash this fairest prospect that Heaven has ever vouch

safed to man on earth! Ah, God! if we do but let them do it! Men of the North! men of the North! stand firm till this sacred finishing duty shall be performed! Shoulder to shoulder, and shield to shield, let the whole grand column of Liberty and Union march on, until the results of this great war, so dearly earned by the mighty agony of the Nation's bleeding heart, shall be gathered up and made secure forever! And he that falters now-though his plume may have shown in the forefront of the fight, and his voice rallied the clans of liberty in other days—for him let the portion be, 'Ichabod! Ichabod! thy glory is departed!"

Mr. Broomall of Penn. spoke for a Reconstruction that should give security to the freedman and not leave to the tender mercies of his enemies, one who in the gigantic struggle was on the side of the country and against his master. He said "the negro was loyal to a government to which he owed nothing but chains; a government which had authoritatively pronounced from its highest altar of justice, that he had no rights which it was bound to respect; true, when the hand that fed him, and could crush him became false; shedding his blood and leaving his bones on the most sanguinary battle fields, fighting, and falling when he fell, always on the side of loyalty.'

Mr. Hubbell of Ohio, on the 5th of February, addressed the House in favor of changing the basis of representation, and of giving ample and com

plete protection to the freedmen in all their rights of person and of property, to the full extent by all non-voting classes. Mr. Randall of Penn. maintained that the Republican party, by its acts and legislation, had established the fact that the rebel States were not out of the Union. Mr. Lawrence of Ohio was for speedily inaugurating the era of universal brotherhood and universal justice. "When" said he, "by irreversible guarantees secession shall be repudiated; the supremacy of national allegiance and national adjudications affirmed; a just basis of representation in Congress and the Electoral College secured; the rebel debt repudiated, the impudent claim of compensation for slaves made free shall be rejected; our national debt and obligations to Union soldiers placed beyond repudiation; with the personal rights of every citizen secured; with every State pledged to provide common schools for all its youth, then, with unqualified loyalty restored, the era of fraternity will be secured."

Mr. Stillwell of Indiana had hoped that four years of war had wiped out forever from the public mind every thought of nullification, secession, and disunion, and that the nation had emerged from the bloody contest with but one national pulsation, that the States are "one and inseparable, now and forever." Mr. Welker of Ohio maintained that the rebel States were not out of the Union. He said, "no man whose heart was filled with sentiments of treason, whose hand is red with the blood of our

martyred heroes, should ever be allowed to take a seat as a Representative in the American Congress. No traitor should ever be allowed to contaminate these beautiful Halls. The great and vital interests of this broad land should never, no never, be placed in such hands. No pardons, no repentance should ever open these doors to him. These majestic emblems of freedom should never be desecrated by his presence." Mr. Henderson of Oregon said John Brown struck against slavery, the rebel leaders struck for slavery; he was punished justly; they deserved punishment more.

Mr. Kelso of Missouri was born of ultra proslavery parents, and had unconsciously imbibed many of their sentiments and prejudices, but he was willing to do justice to all men, to even the despised negro. He said, "The gratitude, the plighted faith of the nation binds us to bestow upon the loyal blacks, all the rights of freemen. In the darkest hour of our country's need they never faltered, though their fidelity to us subjected them to unheard of outrages and to death in a thousand terrible forms. Our poor starved prisoners, escaping from the rebel slaughter-pens, found no friend but the poor, despised negro. He shared with them his own scant fare, and in the darkness of the night led them through swamps and over mountains to the camps of their friends. When the war hung in even balance, we called upon these poor slaves to help us, and promised in return to make them free.