13 exclude them from the ballot-box would not abolish, in point of fact, and in a definitive manner, that government of the majority, which constitutes the essence of a republic in the eyes of Americans? III. We are now at the heart of the discussion. Permit me, Mr. President, to dwell on the truly disastrous consequences which would be entailed by a resolution of Congress admitting the representatives of the South before the establishment of guarantees. These consequences are self-evident. In the first place, the South itself would regulate the conditions of its return. By its vote and influence it would participate (and participate largely, be sure), in the decision of the questions pertaining most directly to the subject of the war itself. These questions would escape your control ; you would no longer be masters of the situation. The rights of the colored race, for instance, would depend on the opinions that might prevail at Charleston and Richmond. The work of abolition could not be finished. You are not a centralized country. The rebel states once readmitted, their sovereignty would raise up barriers which would everywhere arrest your action. The negroes would find themselves imprisoned as it were in a new condition which would not be much better than the old one. In Congress, party cabals would be formed from the first moment. The eighty votes of the South would be sought after, courted, and set at a high price. You would witness the reappearance of the old quarrel, somewhat transformed, yet the same. The men whom you have conquered on the battle-field would then have an opportunity to conquer you on the floor of Congress. And the saddest and most terrible thing would be that you would have left them the ground on which they had always manoeuvred, the ground of the negro question. It depended on you to end it, to suppress it. You would have had a single moment for this and you would not have profited thereby. All this bloodshed would perhaps have been in vain ; you would perchance be forced to begin it anew.
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