Reconstruction

by Brooks D. Simpson

  VOICES—Give us three of these names at the other end.

  THE PRESIDENT—I am called upon to name three at the other end of the line. I am talking to my friends and fellow-citizens who are interested with me in this Government, and I presume I am free to mention to you the names of those whom I look upon, as being opposed to the fundamental principles of this Government, and who are laboring to destroy it.

  VOICES—“Name them—who are they?”

  THE PRESIDENT—You ask me who they are? I say, THADDEUS STEVENS, of Pennsylvania, is one; I say Mr. SUMNER, of the Senate, is another, and WENDELL PHILLIPS is another. [Long continued applause.]

  VOICES—“Give it to Forney.”

  THE PRESIDENT—In reply to that I will simply say I do not waste my ammunition upon dead ducks. [Great laughter and applause.] I stand for my country. I stand for the Constitution. There I have always placed myself from my advent in public life. They may traduce, they may slander, they may vituperate me, but let me say to you all this has no influence upon me. [Great applause.] Let me say further, that I do not intend to be overawed by real or pretended friends, nor do I mean to be bullied by my enemies. [Tremendous applause.] Honest conviction is my courage. The Constitution is my guide. I know, my countrymen, that it has been insinuated, it has been said directly in high places, that if such a usurpation of power as I am charged with had been exercised some 200 years ago, in a particular reign, it would have cost an individual his head. [Great laughter.] Of what usurpation has ANDREW JOHNSON been guilty? None; none. Is it a usurpation to stand between the people and the encroachments of power? Because, in a conversation with a fellow-citizen, who happened to be a Senator, I said that I thought amendments to the Constitution ought not to be so frequent; that if it was continually tampered with, it would lose its prestige and dignity, and the old instrument would be lost sight of altogether in a short time, and because in the same conversation I happened to say that if it were amended at all, such and such an amendment ought to be adopted, it was charged that I was guilty of an assumption of power that would have cost a king his head in a certain period of English history. [Great laughter.] From the same source the exclamation has gone forth that they were in the midst of earthquakes, that they were trembling and could not yield. [Laughter.] Yes, fellow-citizens, there is an earthquake coming; there is a grand swelling of popular judgment and indignation. [Great applause.] The American people will speak, and by their instinct, if not otherwise, they will know who are their friends and who are their enemies. I have endeavored to be true to the people in all the positions which I have occupied, and there is hardly a position in this Government which I have not at some time filled. I suppose it will be said that this is vanity; [laughter;] but I may say that I have been all of them, and I have been in both branches of the State Legislature.

  A VOICE—You commenced a tailor.

  THE PRESIDENT—A gentleman behind me says that I began a tailor. Yes, I did begin a tailor [applause], and that suggestion does not disturb me in the least, for when I was a tailor I had the reputation of being a good one, and of making close fits. [Laughter.] And I was always punctual to my customers and did good work. [Applause.]

  VOICES—We will patch up the Union yet.

  THE PRESIDENT—No! I do not want any patchwork of it. I want the original article restored. [Great applause.] But enough of this raillery. I know it may be said, You are President, and you must not talk about these things; but, my fellow-citizens, I intend to talk the truth, and when principle is involved, when the existence of my country is in peril, I hold it to be my duty to speak what I think and what I feel, as I have always done on former occasions. [Great applause.] I have said it has been declared elsewhere that I was guilty of usurpation which would have cost a king his head, and in another place I have been denounced for “whitewashing.” When and where did I ever whitewash anything or anybody? I have been an Alderman of a town; I have been in both branches of the Legislature of my State; I have been in both Houses of the National Congress; I have been at the head of the Executive Department of my State; I have been Vice-President of the United States; and I am now in the position which I occupy before you, and during all this time where is the man and where is any portion of the people who can say that ANDREW JOHNSON ever made a pledge which he did not redeem, or that he ever made a promise which he violated. None! none! Point me to the man who can say that ANDREW JOHNSON ever acted with infidelity to the great mass of the people. [Great applause.] Men may talk about beheading and about usurpation, but when I am beheaded I want the American people to be the witness. I do not want it done by innuendoes and indirect remarks, in high places to be suggested to men who have assassination brooding in their bosoms. Others have exclaimed that the presidential obstacle must be gotten out of the many. What is that but (I make use of a strong word) inciting to assassination? Are the opponents of the Government not yet satisfied? Are those who want to destroy our institutions, and to change the character of the Government, not yet satisfied with the quantity of blood that has been shed? Are they not satisfied with one martyr in this place? Does not the blood of LINCOLN appease their vengeance and their wrath? Is their thirst still unsatisfed? Do they still want more blood? Have they not honor and courage enough to seek to obtain the end other wise than by the hand of an assassin? I am not afraid of an assassin attacking me where alone brave and courages men will attack another? I only dread him when in disguise and where his footsteps is noiseless. If they want blood let them have the courage to strike like men. I know they are “willing to wound yet afraid to strike.” If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union and insist on the preservation of this Government in its original purity, let it be shed out; let an altar to the Union be first erected and then, if necessary, take me and lay me upon it, and the blood that now warms and animates my existence shall be poured out as the last libation as a tribute to the union of the States. [Great applause.] But let the opponents of this Government remember when it is found out that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. This Union will grow and it will continue to increase in strength and power though it may be cemented and cleansed in blood. I have already spoken to you longer than I intended when I came out. [“Go on.”] I merely intended to make my acknowledgments for the honor you have done me, but before I close allow me to say a word in regard to the question of amendings to the Constitution of the United States. Shortly after I reached Washington for the purpose of being inaugurated as Vice-President of the United States, I had a conversation with Mr. LINCOLN in regard to the condition of affairs; we talked particularly in reference to matters in my own State. I told him that we called a convention, that we had amended the Constitution; that we had abolished slavery in that State, which was not included in his Emancipation Proclamation. All these things met his approbation, and he gave me words of encouragement; we talked then about affairs generally, and upon the subject of amendments to the Constitution of the United States; he said to me “When the amendment of the Constitution now proposed is adopted by three-fourths of the States, I am pretty near done, or, indeed, quite done, in favor of amending the Constitution, if there was one other adopted.” I asked him—“What is that, Mr. President?” He said—“I have labored to preserve this Union. I have toiled during the four years I have been subjected to calumny and misrepresentation. My great and sole desire has been to presume these States intact under the Constitution as they were before.” I asked him again, Mr. President, what amendment is that which you would propose? Why, said he, it is that there should be an amendment added to the Constitution which would compel the States to send their Senators and Representatives to the Congress of the United States. [Great applause.] The idea was in his mind that as a part of the doctrine of secession, one of the means to break up this Government was that the States, if they saw fit, might withdraw their Senators and Representatives, or refuse to elect them. He wanted even to remove that difficulty by a constitutional amendment compelling the States to
send Senators and Representatives to Congress. But what do we now find? The Constitution of the country, even that portion of it which allows amendment to the organic law, expressly provides that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its suffrage and it also provides that each State shall have at least one representative in the House of Representatives; but yet the position is taken that certain States cannot be represented. We impose taxes upon them, we send our tax gatherers into every region and portion of the States. The people are fit subjects of Government for the collection of taxes, but when they ask to participate in the legislation of the country they are met at the door and told, no you must pay taxes you must bear the burdens of Government but not participate in its legislation, that legislation which is to affect you through all time to come. Is this just? Is it fair? No! no!! I repeat, I am for the Union; I am for preserving all the States. I am for admitting into the counsels of the nation all their representatives who are unmistakeably and unquestionably loyal. A man who acknowledges allegiance to the Government and who swears to support the Constitution must necessarily be loyal. A man cannot take that oath in good faith unless he is loyal. A mere amplification of the oath makes no difference as to the principle. Whatever test is thought proper as evidence and as proof of ­loyalty is a mere matter of detail, about which I care nothing but let a man be unmistakeably and unquestionably loyal, let him acknowledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and be willing to support the Government in its hour of peril and its hour of need and I am willing to trust him. [Applause.] I know that some do not attach as much importance to this point as I do, but I regard it as ­fundamental. One principle that carried us through the Revolution was that there should be no taxation without representation. I hold to that principle, which was laid down as fundamental by our fathers. If it was good then it is good now. If it was worth standing by then it is worth standing by now. It is fundamental, and should be observed as long as free government lasts. I am aware that in the midst of the rebellion it was said by some that the Constitution had been rolled up as a piece of parchment and laid away; that in time of war and ­rebellion there was no constitution. We know that sometimes in great necessities under great emergencies unconstitutional things must sometimes necessarily be done in order to preserve the Constitution itself. But if, while the rebellion was going on the Constitution was rolled up and laid away; if it was ­violated in some particulars in order to save the Government, and all may be excused and justified, because in saving the Government you really saved the Constitution; now that peace has come, now that the war is over, we want again the benefit of a written Constitution, and I say the time has come to take the Constitution down, to unroll it—to re-read it to understand its provisions thoroughly. And now, in order to save the Government, we must preserve the Constitution. Our only safety is in a strict adherence to and preservation of the Constitution of our fathers. It is now unfolded. It must now be read—it must now be digested and understood by the American people. I am here to-day, then, in making these remarks, to vindicate the Constitution and to save it, as I believe, for it does seem as if encroachment after encroachment is proposed upon it. As far as I can, I have ever resisted encroachments upon the Constitution, and I stand prepared to resist them to-day, and thereby to preserve the Constitution and Government of the United States. [Great applause.] It is now a time of peace, and let us have peace; let us enforce the Constitution; let us live under and according to its provisions. Let it be published and printed in blazing characters, as though it were in the heavens and punctuated by the stars, so that all can read and all can understand it. Let us consult that instrument and be guided by its provisions. Let us understand them, and understanding them abide by them.