CHAPTER XXVII.

BREACH BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS-THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL PASSED OVER THE PRESIDENT'S VETO-SERENADE SPEECH OF MR. COLFAX ON THAT

OCCASION.

UPON the reading of the message of the President at the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress, it was evident beyond all peradventure that the President was opposed in the reconstruction of the Government to the leaders of the Republican party, and at variance with his own previously expressed principles. The breach between the President and Congress widened continually. The President removing the provisional Governor of Alabama, and handing the State government over to officers elected by the people, virtually denied the authority of Congress over the reconstruction of the rebel States. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which had been passed by a large majority in Congress, was vetoed by him. The veto message gave evidence that the President was willing that those who, through four years of dreadful war, had sought to destroy the country, should have an equal voice with loyal men in determining the terms of its reconstruction. The President also vetoed the Civil Rights Bill. This bill had been prepared with great care. It seemed to the Republican party to be essential for the preservation of the results gained by the war. A majority of more than the requisite two-thirds passed this bill over the President's veto, and placed it among the statutes of the land. There was great rejoicing

among the Republicans at this result. The citizens of Indiana, in honor of the event, serenaded Mr. Colfax, who, in acknowledging the compliment, made the following address to them:

SERENADE SPEECH.

"I have no doubt that you, like myself, rejoice with exceeding great joy, and are prouder to-day of being citizens of this great country than ever before. There was a time in this land of ours when slavery was regarded as the corner-stone of American institutions. Thank God, that time has passed, and we build henceforth on a foundation of liberty. To-day, under the legislation of the American Congress, in this Republic, washed by the waters of the two great oceans of the globe, there is no person, rich or poor, high or humble, learned or unlearned, who does not live in security under the protection of equal laws. I am prouder to-day, also, of the great Union organization of which I have been a member than ever before. Its history is nobly written in the history of our country. Administrations, and Congresses, and parties may pass away, but the record which this party has made will shine with more brilliancy on our country's pages than any others in the annals of our history. When the great rebellion broke out, and when our ship of state rocked in a fearful storm, and was threatened by a terrible mutiny, the Union organization stood unflinchingly by our noble President, the martyred Lincoln, in his determination to crush the conspiracy and preserve the Government intact; and when it prophesied to us, that the rebellion could not be subjugated, the Union-loving people of the country, forming into a mighty phalanx, determined that it

should be. The patriotic enactments of this great party are imperishable. In 1862 the Capital was disgraced by slavery; but they determined that henceforth it should be free, and with unwavering fidelity to principle they placed upon the statute-book that law which never can be and never shall be repealed, that in this Capital there should be no slave. In 1863 our noble and truehearted President issued his Proclamation of Emancipation, striking with the sword of the Union that powerful element of rebel strength, and the Union party stood by him, determined to give that proclamation vitality, carrying it successfully in the great campaign of 1861. When the Constitutional amendment was proposed in Congress banishing slavery, as an unclean thing, forever from the country, and declaring that henceforth and forever it should be the home of the free, that noble organiza. tion again united and rallied to its support, and placed that amendment on the statute-book. Again, in this year of 1866, in the Senate chamber and in the Representative-hall, they have placed by overwhelming majorities the Civil Rights Bill on your statute-book, which declares that every one born on American soil, and all who come here from abroad, and are naturalized in our courts, shall have a birthright as an American citizen. That law, misrepresented as it has been by its opponents in Congress, will never be repealed; and in the years that are to come it will be the proudest recollection and the crowning honor of those men, who stood up in the national councils, that they gave to such truly American. legislation their cordial support. For why should there be objections to a law like that?

"Every one born on the soil of the Republic owes to it allegiance; and is it not then the reciprocal duty of the

Republic to give to him its protection? Henceforth, whenever in this land a person shall be oppressed or outraged, or his rights withheld; whenever 'tyranny may shake his sceptre over him,' he has but to turn to the national flag and to the national Government for that protection which the Congress of the United States has ordained is his right. We are sometimes asked—and I know with what solicitude the American people regard it-why the work of reconstruction has been delayed. I do not think it has been unreasonably delayed. The President of the United States, in the eight months between the collapse of the rebellion and the opening of Congress, was engaged in the work of that policy, which seemed to him the most fitting, and Congress has been engaged for the past four months in collecting testimony, in comparing opinions, and in proposing action to lay the foundation of a reconstruction, which shall make our Union eternal as the ages. But they have already in past years initiated a policy of reconstruction. In 1862 they placed upon the statute-book the first law indicating their policy of reconstruction, the law known as the test oath, declaring that no man should be eligible to office, who could not swear that he had not voluntarily given aid and comfort to bloody conspiracy and treason. That law was well understood by the American people South as well as North. No one expected that then, when the rebellion had its armies in the field against the Union, any one would come knocking at the door of Congress, claiming to represent the States of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South or North Carolina, Florida or Texas. But it was believed when the rebellion should end, the men who had insultingly turned their backs on Congress and spurned their seats, who

had killed the Union defenders and sought to capture this Capital, would, with the assurance of old times, demand that they should govern the country which they had ineffectually attempted to ruin. That test oath was placed there, as the flaming sword at the garden of Eden, to warn such men that until there were fruits meet for repentance, or bonds for future good behavior, there was no place in these precincts for them. Again, the policy of reconstruction was indicated by Congress in the winter of 1864, when it passed nearly unanimously, and without the yeas and nays, a joint resolution that the VicePresident, in counting the Presidential votes, should not count the electoral votes of any State that had been engaged in the rebellion. That was intended to proclaim that until Congress removed their disqualifications by laws restoring them to their rights, they should stand back. Congress has, therefore, by these two striking enactments, indicated its policy of reconstruction. But the Constitution shows, in still plainer language, where the responsibility of reconstruction rests. It has declared that every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government; and in a subsequent section, it declares that Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution all the powers vested in it, or in any department or officer of the Government. This was intended to declare that Congress is the only law-making power of this land; and by the Constitution, to Congress and Congress alone, all must look for legal reconstruction. The President of the United States, in his proclamation last May, appointing provisional Governors, declared that the States which had been in rebellion were without civil government. That was a fact as apparent as the stars when they shine