Trumbull replied to the veto message in a speech of great power which
occupies five pages of the _Congressional Globe_. He took up and
answered the President's objections _seriatim_. These details need not
now be repeated. There was one of a personal character, however, which
calls for notice. He said that he had endeavored to meet the President's
wishes in the preparation of both the bills, and had called upon him
twice and had given him copies of them before they were introduced and
asked his coöperation in order to make them satisfactory. In short, he
had done everything possible to avoid a conflict between the executive
and legislative branches of the Government, and since he had been
assured that the President's aims, like his own, were in the direction
of peace and concord, he was amazed when they were vetoed. At the
conclusion of his speech he referred briefly to the constitutional
objection to the bill saying:
If the bill now before us, which goes no further than to secure
civil rights to the freedmen, cannot be passed, then the
constitutional amendment proclaiming freedom to all the
inhabitants of the land is a cheat and a delusion.
The floor and galleries of the Senate Chamber were crowded during the
delivery of the speech and the roll-call followed immediately,
resulting: yeas 33, nays 15, more than two thirds. The closing scene was
thus described in a Washington letter to the _Nation_, April 12:
After three days of extremely ardent debate signalized by a
speech of singular cogency and power from Senator Trumbull, the
father of the bill, the vote was reached about 7 o'clock on
Friday evening. When the end of the roll was reached and
Vice-President Foster announced the result, nearly the whole
Senate and auditory were carried off their feet and joined in a
tumultuous outburst of cheering such as was never heard within
those walls before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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