73 history of the times tells how well they have carried them into prac ice What have we been doing all this time ! We have been treating these gentlemen with the most distinguished consideration. [A voice, "That's so."] We could not confiscate their property ! Oh, no ! Nothing but a life interest in it ! All the rest we are bound under the Constitution to protect. But, gentlemen, it is no pleasure to me, it cannot be to any one, to dwell upon the policy which we have pursued since the rebellion broke out. Out of it stands patent and undisguised, this great, this important, this, to many a household, solemn fact that the soil of rebel States has been crimsoned with the blood of a hundred and twenty-five thousand brave and loyal men, and still rebellion is as defiant as ever. Has not this gone far enough? [Loud cries of "Yes, yes!"] Has not the time come to declare war, and a vigorous war against the South ! War with all its consequences to persons and to property ? [" Yes, yes !" and tremendous cheers.] Yes, and would to Heaven the voice with which you speak it, might reach the Congress and the Cabinet which just now need encouragement like that! At this moment a procession of sailors with bands and banners passed by. It was composed of ship-carpenters from the Navy Yard, and the enthusiasm increased when three rousing cheers were given for the Navy. The scene was a splendid one as they marched round the Square. Mr. CHITTENDEN continued : This is no time for fault-finding or complaint. I care not, I do not ask, who has been responsible for the policy upon which the war has been conducted. We have tried it it has failed, and is it not hightime to change it ? [Loud cries of " Yes !"] Let us have no more protection of the persons or the property of disloyal men. I have met officers of our army from the valley of the Shenandoah who drew a picture of the vigorous manner in which the property of rebels there was guarded. These men were in the Southern army all of them. Their women derided and abused Union soldiers. Sick men lay in miserable hovels and died there, while splendid residences of rebel owners stood close by. Asoldier could not take so much as a chicken without being punished for it. By and by Stonewall Jackson sweeps up the valley with an overwhelming force, and our retreating troops are shot down from the windows of the very houses they have saved from destruction. [A voice, "Destroy the inhabitants."] Gentlemen, I assert that it is time to proclaim to every Winchester in the so-called Southern Confederacy, that there shall not be left one article above ground in such a town, that fire can consume ! [Great enthusiasm.] Let our policy be every piece of property belonging to a rebel that will do a Union man good, take it ; if it won't do him any good, burn it. [Tremendous cheers and cries of " That's the talk."] Gentlemen, we have been fighting the rebels and Providence, too. That is an unequal warfare. The slavery question lies at the bottom of the whole. That was the cause of this rebellion, we all know. [Cheers, and cries of " That's so."] I believe it is one of the eternal decrees of Providence, that with this war slavery in this republic shall die. [Loud cheering.] When the 10
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