because we have known them, and have been personal friends with them for years, we are not entitled to sit here as Senators ourselves. Can you expect your brave men, your officers and soldiers that are now in "the tented field," subject to all the hardships and privations pertaining to a civil war like this, to have courage, and to march on with patriotism to crush treason on every battle-field, when you have not the courage to expel it from your midst? Set those brave men an example; say to them by your acts and voice that you evidence your intention to put down traitors in the field by ejecting them from your midst, without regard to former associations.

I do not say these things in unkindness. I say them in obedience to duty, a high constitutional duty that I owe to my country; yes, sir, that I owe to my wife and children. By your failure to exercise 'the powers of this Government, by your failure to enforce the laws of the Union, I am separated from those most dear to me. Pardon me, sir, for this personal allusion. My wife and children have been turned into the street, and my house has been turned into a barracks, and for what? Because I stand by the Constitution and the institutions of the country that I have been taught to love, respect, and venerate. This is my offense. Where are my sons-in-law? One to-day is lying in prison; another is forced to fly to the mountains to evade the pursuit of the hell-born and hell-bound conspiracy of disunion and secession; and when their cries come up here to you for protection, we are told, “No; I am against the entire coercive policy of the Government."

The speech of the Senator from California the other day had the effect in some degree, and seemed to be intended to give the question a party tinge. If I know myself—although, as I avowed before, I am a Democrat, and expect to live and die one--I know no party in this great struggle for the existence of my country. The argument presented by the Senator from California was, that we need not be in such hot pursuit of Mr. Bright, or those Senators who entertain his sentiments, who are still here, because we had been a little dilatory in expelling other traitorous Senators heretofore, and he referred us to the resolution of the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden], which was introduced at the special session in March last, declaring that certain Senators having withdrawn, and their seats having thereby become vacant, the Secretary should omit their names from the roll of the Senate. I know there seemed to be a kind of timidity, a kind of fear, to make use of the word "expel" at that time; but the fact that we declared the seats vacant, and stopped there, did not preclude us from afterwards passing a vote of censure. The resolution, which was adopted in March, merely stated the fact that Sena

ators had withdrawn, and left their seats vacant. At the next session a resolution was introduced to expel the other Senators from the seceded States who did not attend in the Senate; and my friend [Mr. Latham] moved to strike out that very resolution the word "expelled," and insert "vacated;" so that I do not think he ought to be much offended at it. I simply allude to it to show how easy it is for us to forget the surrounding circumstances that influenced our action at the time it took place. We know that a year ago there was a deep and abiding hope that the rebellion would not progress as it has done; that it would cease; and that there might be circumstances which, at one time, would to some extent justify us in allowing a wide margin which, at another period of time, would be wholly unjustifiable.

All this, however, amounts to nothing. We have a case now before us that requires our action, and we should act upon it conscientiously in view of the facts which are presented. Because we neglected to expel traitors before, and omitted to have them arrested, and permitted them to go away freely, and afterwards declared their seats vacant because they had gone, we are not now prevented from expelling a Senator who is not worthy to be in the Senate. I do not say that other traitors may not be punished yet. I trust in God the time will come, and that before long, when these traitors can be overtaken in the aggregate, and we may mete out to them condign punishment, such as their offense deserves. I know who was for arresting them. I know who declared their conduct to be treason. Here in their midst I told them it was treason, and they might make the best of it they could.

Sir, to sum up the argument, I think there is but little in the point presented by the Senator from New Jersey, of there being no proof of the reception of the letter; and I think I have extracted the staple commodity entirely out of the speech of the Senator from Delaware; and so far as the force of the argument, based upon the Senate having at one session expelled certain members, while at the previous session it only vacated their seats, I think the Senator from California answers that himself. As to the polished and ingenious statement of the case made by the Senator from New York [Mr. Harris], I think I have answered that by putting the case upon a different basis from that presented by him, and which seems to control his action.

Mr. President, I have alluded to the talk about compromise. If I know myself, there is no one who desires the preservation of this Government more than I do; and I think I have given as much evidence as mortal man could give of my devotion to the Union. My property has been sacrificed; my wife and children have been

turned out of doors; my sons have been imprisoned; my son-in-law has had to run to the mountains; I have sacrificed a large amount of bonds in trying to give some evidence of my devotion to the Government under which I was raised. I have attempted to show you that on the part of the leaders of this rebellion there was no desire to compromise-compromise was not what they wanted; and now the great issue before the country is the perpetuation or the destruction of free Government. I have shown how the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden] was defeated, and that Southern men are responsible for that defeat-six sitting in their places and refusing to vote. His proposition was only lost by two votes; and in the end, when the seceders had gone, by only one. Well do I remember, as was described by the Senator from California, the sadness, the gloom, the anguish that played over his venerable face when the result was announced; and I went across the Chamber, and told him that here were men refusing to vote, and that to me was administered a rebuke by one of them for speaking to him on the subject.

Now, the Senator from Delaware tells us if that compromise had been made, all these consequences would have been avoided. It is a mere pretense; it is false. Their object was to overturn the Government. If they could not get the control of this Government, they were willing to divide the country and govern a part of it. Talk not of compromise now. What, sir, compromise with traitors with arms in their hands? Talk about "our Southern brethren" when they lay their swords at your throat and their bayonets at your bosoms? Is this a time to talk about compromise? Let me say, and I regret I have to say it, that there is but one way to compromise this matter, and that is to crush the leaders of this rebellion and put down treason. You have got to subdue them; you have got to conquer them; and nothing but the sacrifice of life and blood will do it. The issue is made. The leaders of rebellion have decreed eternal separation between you and them. Those leaders must be conquered, and a new set of men brought forward who are to vitalize and develop the Union feeling in the South. You must show your courage here as Senators, and impart it to those who are in the field. If you were to compromise they would believe that they could whip you one to five, and you could not live in peace six months, or even three months. Settle the question now; settle it well; settle it finally; crush out the rebellion and punish the traitors. I want to see peace, and I believe that is the shortest way to get it. Blood must be shed, life must be sacrificed, and you may as well begin at first as last. I only regret that the Government has been so tardy in

its operations. I wish the issue had been met sooner. I believe that if we had seen as much in the beginning as we see to-day, this rebellion would have been wound up and peace restored to the land by this time.

But let us go on; let us encourage the Army and the Navy; let us vote the men and the means necessary to vitalize and to bring into requisition the enforcing and coercive power of the Government; let us crush out the rebellion, and anxiously look forward to the day-God grant it may come soon-when that baneful comet of fire and of blood that now hovers over this distracted people may be chased away by the benignant star of peace. Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag, the glorious,flag of our country, and nail it below the cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden time, and let us gather around it, and inscribe as our motto, "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever." Let us gather around it, and while it hangs floating beneath the cross, let us exclaim, "Christ first, our country next !” Oh, how gladly rejoiced I should be to see the dove returning to the ark with the fig leaf, indicating that land was found, and that the mighty waters had abated. I trust the time will soon come when we can do as they did in the olden times, when the stars sang together in the morning and all creation proclaimed the glory of God. Then let us do our duty in the Senate and in the councils of the nation, and thereby stimulate our brave officers and soldiers to theirs in the field.

Mr. President, I have occupied the attention of the Senate much longer than I intended. In view of the whole case, without personal unkind feeling towards the Senator from Indiana, I am of opinion that duty to myself, duty to my family, duty to the Constitution, duty to the country, obedience to the public judgment, require me to cast my vote to expel Mr. Bright from the Senate, and when the occasion arrives I shall so record my vote.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S OPINIONS ON THE USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS.

The New York Observer contained the following communication conveying President Johnson's opinions on the use of ardent spirits: SOUTH RALSTON, SARATOGA Co., April 29, 1865.

MESSRS. EDITORS,-In 1833 I visited ex-President Madison, who signed the declaration below. On my return from Virginia, I called

on President Jackson and ex-President Adams. They added their signatures. The declaration is on parchment. Every succeeding President has added his name except President Harrison. He died before I had time to forward it; but that he would have signed it I have no doubt, had he lived, as I was given to understand, after his death, that he had abandoned his interest in a distillery, from principle. . . . . President Johnson has now returned the document to me with his autograph.

Yours, truly,

EDWARD C. DELAVAN.

PRESIDENTIAL DECLARATION.

Being satisfied from observation and experience, as well as from medical testimony, that ardent spirits, as a drink, is not only needless, but hurtful; and that the entire disuse of it would tend to promote the health, the virtue, and the happiness of the community, we hereby express our conviction, that should the citizens of the United States, and especially the young men, discontinue entirely the use of it, they would not only promote their own personal benefit, but the good of our country and the world.

son.

THE HOME OF ANDREW JOHNSON.

REV. RANDALL Ross, Chaplain of the Fifteenth Ohio regiment, writes an interesting letter to the United Presbyterian, descriptive of the village of Greenville, East Tenn., the home of President JohnThe place contains only about one thousand inhabitants, and consists of four squares, with streets running through at right angles. Many years ago, on a certain evening, a rude, black-headed, blackeyed, good-looking boy, said my informant, drove into town with a poor old horse in a little one-horse vehicle, in which he had his mother and a few household things. They succeeded in securing a bumble habitation by rent. This secured, the next object was to secure labor by which to live. He began to inquire for tailoring to