American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897) — John Shaqi
American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
I do not stop to consider whether it is subjugation or not. It is
compulsory obedience, not to my will; not to yours, sir; not to the
will of any one man; not to the will of any one State; but compulsory
obedience to the Constitution of the whole country. The Senator chose
the other day again and again to animadvert on a single expression in
a little speech which I delivered before the Senate, in which I took
occasion to say that if the people of the rebellious States would not
govern themselves as States, they ought to be governed as Territories.
The Senator knew full well then, for I explained it twice--he knows full
well now--that on this side of the Chamber; nay, in this whole Chamber;
nay, in this whole North and West; nay, in all the loyal States in all
their breadth, there is not a man among us all who dreams of causing any
man in the South to submit to any rule, either as to life, liberty, or
property, that we ourselves do not willingly agree to yield to. Did
he ever think of that? Subjugation for what? When we subjugate South
Carolina, what shall we do? We shall compel its obedience to the
Constitution of the United States; that is all. Why play upon words?
We do not mean, we have never said, any more. If it be slavery that men
should obey the Constitution their fathers fought for, let it be so. If
it be freedom, it is freedom equally for them and for us. We propose to
subjugate rebellion into loyalty; we propose to subjugate insurrection
into peace; we propose to subjugate confederate anarchy into
constitutional Union liberty. The Senator well knows that we propose
no more. I ask him, I appeal to his better judgment now, what does he
imagine we intend to do, if fortunately we conquer Tennessee or South
Carolina--call it "conquer," if you will, sir--what do we propose to
do? They will have their courts still; they will have their ballot-boxes
still; they will have their elections still; they will have their
representatives upon this floor still; they will have taxation and
representation still; they will have the writ of _habeas corpus_ still;
they will have every privilege they ever had and all we desire. When the
confederate armies are scattered; when their leaders are banished from
power; when the people return to a late repentant sense of the wrong
they have done to a Government they never felt but in benignancy and
blessing, then the Constitution made for all will be felt by all,
like the descending rains from heaven which bless all alike. Is that
subjugation? To restore what was, as it was, for the benefit of the
whole country and of the whole human race, is all we desire and all we
can have.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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