11 peace have not been fixed, not only by the President, but by Congress, no particular state right can prevail against the general right of completing the work of the national defence, fully purifying the present, and insuring the safety of the future. Those who read Mr. Lincoln’s proclamations were not ignorant of this. The whole South knew that the Presi- dent, in laying down certain conditions of political reconstruction, regulated these things only so far as it belonged to him to do so. No speech, no presidential proclamation, could or would have encroached upon the inalienable authority of Congress. The latter will decide, therefore, whether it is proper to admit the Southern deputations. It will decide thereon without forgetting two things : First, that the Congress which made war should make peace ; it would be out of the question to substitute for it another Congress by the preliminary introduction of the very persons against whom the war has been waged. Secondly, that the rebellion and-slavery have been one and the same; it would be out of the question, therefore, to commission the rebellion to regulate the destinies of slavery. To forget these two things would be at once to lack dignity and earnestness. Nothing would more resemble child’s play than proceedings by virtue of which the South would be admitted to Congress before Congress should have regulated the conditions of peace in the South. . Again, if this were only child’s play I It would be, besides, an act of real cruelty. The war has profoundly modified the situation of the South ; it has created an entire new class, the class of freedmen. Are you at liberty to shut your eyes to such a change, and unconditionally to establish state rights as if nothing of the kind had occurred ? What will be the protection of these millions of men ? In the presence of the state rights, what will be their rights ? Will you abandon them to the regulations of the state ; to the tribunals of the state ? Are their liberty, their property, and their family, under the jurisdiction of the state alone ?
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