tions and our laws, cherished in the hearts of the utmost importance to the settlers of the country. people as sources of true prosperity, there is little Grants for purposes of intercommunication in the danger of their abandonment. new country, grants for State buildings, for uniWell, then, does the land system of this coun-versities, for common schools, have so repeatedly try deserve, in its general principles, the encomium been made as to become a part of the system. At pronounced upon it by Lord Durham. Its origin the last session of Congress a bill was passed givis but as yesterday-its results are like the works ing the swamp and overflowed lands to the States of ages. A few years since the eye might have in which they lie. This bill went beyond the fortraced the great basin of the Mississippi, bringing mer practice of the Government, but upon princiwithin its ken nothing but an unbroken wilder- ples correct as well as liberal. They are a class ness. The woodman's axe was not heard, and of lands needing draining or embankments before the plough had not touched its soil; the cabin of they can be made of use or of much value. They the settler was not there; its lakes had not been require in their management a more minute attendisturbed by the keel of the vessel; and its rivers tion and preparation than could be given under an ran their course in solitude. But the scene is organization embracing a territory so wide as our changed. An energetic and intelligent population public domain. There are undoubtedly other has extended itself over the country; the rich soil lands, mountainous or barren, lying within the of the wilderness has become the cultivated farm; States, which will not command the minimum price villages are scattered over the whole expanse of of Government lands. In some of the States the the country; and flourishing cities are built on the public lands will soon be, and perhaps now are, borders of the lakes and rivers. Its productions reduced to so small a remnant as scarcely to reare those of almost every climate, and their abund- munerate the expense of sustaining the expendiance such that you may trace them in almost ture incident to the sales. In all such cases the every port to which the mercantile relations of the relinquishment of the lands to the States in which nation extend. On the waters bordering the great they lie is, in my opinion, required both by valley on the north and on the south, and on the policy as regard the Government and justice to the rivers intersecting its area, commerce and naviga- State. They cannot be profitably administered by tion abound. In no country, in so short a time, the General Government-to the States they are of has such results been effected. In none are such importance. abundant elements of prosperity exhibited-in none such noble monuments of the results of individual energy, and toil, and intellect.

The organized States of this region, extending from the great lakes to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, cover a belt of land from the northern to the southern limits of the nation, and embrace every variety of climate, and almost every sectional interest known in the country. Proud of their country and of its institutions, the heart of that great people is true and patriotic. These States are one and inseparable. They will allow no sectional question to alienate their affections from their Government, and no line of division, intended to mark new boundaries, to cross the great valley. They are equally strong in their attachments to the other States in the Confederacy. With all of them, in their interests and feelings, they are intimately united. Claiming relationship alike to the younger sister State on the Pacific and the Old Thirteen on the Atlantic, they will be the last to depart from the principles which bind them together.

The liberality of the grants to the several States has been richly rewarded by the increased extent and power of the nation, and the addition to its wealth and its resources. Let the same generous policy be pursued-let the hand that gives be still more ready, in like manner and for like objects, to bestow. The public weal has found and will find by it its advancement.

Mr. President, I regard the proposition to abandon the principles of the present system, and to adopt the plan proposed by the bill under consideration, as fraught with especial evil to the new States. If the present law is found in any respect imperfect or inefficient, let us amend it; if the present price of land is too high, let us reduce it. But as one of the representatives of one of these States, I cannot consent by my vote to abandon a system which has so long produced rich and abundant fruit, for the purpose of adopting another which may bear only the apples of Sodom.

Mr. President, I have trespassed too long on the attention of the Senate-I trust, however, not so long as not to receive their pardon. The imMr. President, in the rise and growth of this portance of the subject as it presented itself to my country, the operation of our land system has mind, seemed to demand a reference to facts and been constantly exhibited, forming its institutions, statistics bearing upon it, and an expression of my developing its best characteristics, and promoting views upon the policy and the effect of the proits greatest prosperity. That system has as its posed legislation. I regret that I have not been concomitant a spirit of great liberality, in admin-able to present the matter in a manner more worthy istering the public domain towards objects of the the subject and the occasion.

Sept. 25 99

Oan the Democratic Party be Safely Intrusted with the Administration of the Government ?

HON.

SPEECH OF

JAMES A. GARFIELD

OF OHIO,

In the House of Representatives, Friday, August 4, 1876.

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the bill (H. R. No. 2592) to transfer the conduct of Indian affairs from the Interior Department to the War Department-

Mr. GARFIELD said :

this vast force the people have hitherto been unable to make the reforms they desire. This is his major premise.

sire; and his conclusion from these promises is that the Democratic party ought to be brought into power in the coming election.

The next point, his minor premise, is that Mr. CHAIRMAN: I regret that the speech of the Republican party is incapable of effectthe gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. LAMAR]ing the great reforms which the people dehas not yet appeared in the RECORD, so that I might have had its full and authentic text before offering my own remarks in reply. But his propositions were so clearly and so very ably stated, the doctrines that run through it were so logically connected, it will be my own fault if I fail to understand and appreciate the general scope and purpose of his speech.

The

This was the summary, and, I may say, abrupt, conclusion of his reasoning. gentleman seemed to be aware that ther might be some apprehensions in the mind. of the people that it would not, quite yet, be safe to recall the Democratic party t power; and he endeavored to quiet those ap prehensions by stating in the first place that there need be no fear that the South, lately in rebellion, would again control the Gov

In the outset, I desire for myself and for a majority, at least, of those for whom I speak, to express my gratitude to the gentleman for all that portion of his speech which had for its object the removal of the preju-ernment; that they were prostrated; that dices and unkindly feelings that have arisen their institutions had been overthrown; that among citizens of the Republic, in conse- their industries had been broken up; that in quence of the late war. Whatever faults their weak and broken condition there need the speech may have, its author expresses be no fear that they would again be placed an earnest desire to make progrees in the at the head of public affairs; and, finally, direction of a better understanding between that the South has united with the Demothe North and the South; and in that it cratic party net from choice, but forced to it meets my most hearty concurrence and ap-by inexorable necessity as their only means proval. of protection.

I will attempt to state briefly what I un- In the second place, there was apprehenderstand to be the logic of the gentleman'ssion, he said, that the Democracy, if they speech. He sets out with deploring the evils came into power, would not preserve the of party, and expressing the belief that the beneficent results of the war. But he asgreat mass of the American people are tired sures us that this fear is groundless; that of much that belongs to party; and, looking the people of the South have no aspiration: beyond and above mere party prejudices and which are not bounded by the horizon of passions, they greatly desire to remove pub- the Union; that they, as well as the Democ lic corruptions, and reform the manifold er- racy of the North, accept, honestly and rors and evils of administration and legisla- sincerely, the great results of the war; and tion; that those errors and evils consist that they can be trusted to preserve all the mainly of two things: First, of a generally good that has been gained. corrupt state of public administration; and second, of a deplorable state of the civil service; that this state of affairs is buttressed and maintained by an enormous army of 100,000 civil office-holders and 100,000 more expectants for offles: and that because of

Again he says it is feared, on the part of many, that the colored race, lately enslaved, will not be safe in the full enjoyment of all the rights resulting from the war and guaranteed by the amendments to the Constitu tion. This he also assures us is a groundİ

1

less fear, boonuse the people of the South | now only in se far as a fair review of the gon, understand the colored race, appreciate their tleman's speech requires. My remarks shall qualities, and are on such a footing of friend- be responsive to his; and I shall discuss ship and regard that they are in fact better party history and party policy only as the fitted to meet the wants of that people and logic of his speech leads into that domain help them along in the way of civilization, Frem most of the premises of the gentlesulightenment, and peace, than those who man, as matters of fact and history, I disare further removed from such knowledge. sent; some of them are undoubtedly correct. | He emphasizes the statement that the But, for the sake of argument only, admitSouth cheerfully accepts the results of the ting that all his premises are correct, I deny war; and admits that that much good has that his conclusion is warranted by his been achieved by the Republican party, premises; and, before I close I shall atwhich ought to be preserved. I was grati-tempt to show that the good he seeks canfied to hear the gentleman speak of Lincoln not be secured by the ascendency of the the illustrious author of the great act Democratic party at this time. of emancipation." That admission will be Before entering upon that field, however, welcomed everywhere by those who believe I must notice this remarkable omission in the in the justios and wisdom of that great not. logic of his speech. Although he did state While speaking of the condition of the that the country might consider itself free South and its wants he deplores two evils from some of the dangers which are apprewhich afflict that portion of our country: hended as the result of Democratic ascenFirst, Federal supervision; and second, ne- dency, he did not, as I remember, by any gro ascendency in its political affairs. In word attempt to prove the átness of the Dethat connection, it will be remembered, hemocracy as a political organization to accomquoted from John Stuart Mill and from Gib-plish the reforms which has so much desires ; bon; the one, to show that the most deplor- and without that affirmative proof of fitness sble form of government is where the slave his argument is necessarily an absolute fail. governs; and from the other, to show the ura. evils of a government which is în alien hands. in It is precisely that fear which has not The gentleman represented the South as only made the ascendency of the Democratic suffering the composite evils depicted by party se long impossible, but has made it both these great writers. That I may be incompetent to render that service so noces. sure to do him justice I quote a paragraphsary to good government--the service of from the Associated Press report of his maintaining the position of a wise and houspeech : orable opposition to the dominant party.

port and drive the other race to its opposi

The inevitable effect of that reconstruction Often the blunders and faults of the Repubpolicy had been to draw one race to its suplican party have been condoned by the peotion. He quoted Gibbon, the historian, as say-ple because of the violent, reactionary, and ing that the most absurd and oppressive sys. disloyal spirit of the Democracy. tem of government which could be conceived of is that which subjects the native of a country to the domination of his slave. He also quoted from John Stuart Mill to the effect that when a government is administored by rulers not responsible to the people governed, but to some other community, it Is one of the worst of conceivable govern ments, and he said that the hideous system established in the South is a composite of those two vicious systems. The people are subjected to the domination of their former slaves, and are ruled over by people whose constituents were not the people for whom they should act, but the Federal Government. Now, I have stated--of course very briefly, but I hope with entire fairness--the scope of the very able speech to which we listened. In a word it is this: the Republican party is oppressing the South; negro suffrago is a grievous evil; there are serious corruptions in public affairs in the national legislation and Administration; the civil service of the country especially needs great and radical reform; and therefore the Democratic party ought to be placed in control of the Government at this time by the elestion of Tilden and Hendricks.

It has not been my habit, and it is not my desire, to discuss mere party politics in this great legislative forum. And I shall do so

He tells us that is one of the well-known lessons of political history and philosophy; that the opposition party comes in to preserve and crystalize the measures which their antagonists inaugurated; and that a conservative opposition party is better fitted to accomplish such a work than an aggressive radical party who roughly pioneered the way and brought in the changes. And to apply this maxim to our own situation he tells us that the differences between the Republican and Democratic parties upon the issues which led to the war and those which grow out of it, were rather differences of time than of substance; that the Democracy followed more slowly in the Republican path, but have at last arrived by prudent and consti tutional methods at the same results; an hence they will be sure to guard securely and cherish faithfully what the Republicans gained by reckless and turbulent methods. There is some truth in these glittering generalities," but, as applied to our presant situation, they are entitled only to the con sideration which we give to the bright bu fantastic pictures of a Utopian dream.

I share all that gentleman's aspiration

for peace, for good government at the South; and I believe I can safely assure him that the great majority of the nation shares the same aspirations. But he will allow me to say that he has not fully stated the elements of the great problem to be solved by the of the great problem to be solved by the statesmanship of to-day. The actual field

is much broader than the view he has taken.

And before we can agree that the remedy he proposes is an adequate one, we must take in the whole field, comprehend all the conditions of the problem, and then see if his remedy is suficient. The change he proposes is not like the ordinary change of a ministry in England when the Government is defeated on a tax bill or some routine measure of legislation. He proposes to turn over to the enstody and management of the Government to a party which has persistently and with the greatest bitterness resisted all the great changes of the last fifteen years, changes which were the necessary results of a vast revolusion--a revolution in

national policy, in social and political ideas -a revolution whose causes were not the a revolution whose causes were not the work of a day nor of a year, but of generations and centuries. The scope and character of that mighty revolution must form the basis of our judgment when we inquire whether such a change as he proposes is safe

and wise.

In discussing his preposition we must not forget that as the result of this resolution the South, after the great devastations of war, the great loss of life and treasure, the overthrow of its social and industrial system, was called upon to confront the new and difficult problem of two races; one just released from centuries of slavery, and the other a cultivated, brave, proud, imperious race, to be brought together on terms of equality before the law. New, difficult, delicate, and dangerous questions bristle out from every point of that problem.

With all my heart I join with the gentleman in rejoicing thatThe war-drums throb no longer and the battle-flagre furled,

and I look forw..d with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that the darkness through which we have traveled was a part of that stern but beneficent discipline by which the Great Disposer of events has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life.

But such a result can be reached only by comprehending the whole meaning of the revolution through which we have passed and are still passing. I say still passing; for I remember that after the battle of arms triumphs iu the field does not always tricomes the battle of history. The cause that the war for union and equal and universal umph in history. And those who carried freedom to a victorious issue can never

safely relax their vigilance until the ideas for which they fought have become embedied in the enduring forms of individual and national life.

Has this been done? Not yet.

I go

I ask the gentleman in all plainness of speech, and yet in all kindness, is he correct in his statement that the conquered party accept the results of the war? Even if they do I remind the gentleman that accept is not a very strong word, further. 1 ask him if the Democratic party have adopted the results of the war ? Is it not asking too much of human naturs to expect such unparalleled changes to be not only accepted, but, in so short a time, adopted by mon of strong and independent opinions ?

The antagonisms which gave rise to the war and grew out of it were not born in a day, nor can they vanish in a night.

Mr. Chairman, great ideas travel slowly, and for a time, noiselessly as the gods whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence was a war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two hundred years of slow and silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as self-evident trutha the declaration that all men are created equal, and the only just power of governments is derived from the consent of the governed, they uttered a doctrine that no nation had ever adopted, that not ons kingdom on the earth then believed. Yet to our fathers it was so plain that they would not debate it. They announced it as a truth "self-evident.”

But that is not all of the situation. On the other hand, we see the North, after leaving its 350,000 dead upon the field of battle and bringing home its 500,000 maimed and wounded to be cared for, crippled in its industries, staggering under the tremendous burden of public and private debt, and both North and South weighted with unparalleled burdens and losses the whole nation suffering from that loosening of the bonds of social order which always follows a great war and from the resulting corruption both in the public and the private life of the people. These, Mr. Chairman, consitute the vast field which we must survey in order | to find the path which will soonest lead our Whence came the immortal truths of the beloved country to the highway of peace, of Declaration? To me, this was, for years, liberty, and prosperity. Peace from the the riddle of our history. I have searched shock of battle; the higher peace of our long and patiently through the books of the streets, of our homes, of our equal rights doctrinaires to find the germs from which the we must make secure by making the con- Declaration of Independence sprang. I found quering ideas of the war everywhere domi-hints in Locke, in Hobbes, in Roussesu, and nant and permanent.

conscious of the fatal antagonisms that wer developing.

Fenelon; but they were only the hints of dreamers and philosophers. The great doctrines of the Declaration germinated in the For nearly two centuries there was no hearts of our fathers, and were developed serious collision; but when the continent under the new influences of this wilderness began to fill up, and the people began to world, by the same subtle mystery which jostle against each other; when the Roundbrings forth the rose from the germ of the head and the Cavalier came near enough to rese-tree. Unconsciously to theraselves, the measure opinions, the irreconcilable characgreat truths were growing under the new ter of the two doctrines began to appear. conditions until, like the century plant, they Many conscientious men studied the subject, blossomed into the matchless beauty of the and came to the belief that slavery was a crime, Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, a sin, or as Wesley said, "the sum of all increased and increasing, we enjoy to-day. | villainies."’ This belief dwelt in small It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak of minorities for a long time. It lived in the the gigantic revolution through which we churches and vestries, but later found its have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted way into the civil and political organizations and settled by a change of administration. of the country, and finally found its way It was cyclical, epochal, century-wide, and into this Chamber. A few brave, clearto be studied in its broad and grand per- sighted, far-seeing men announced it here spective-a revolution of even wider scope, a little more than a generation ago. A preso far as time is concerned, than the Revolu- decessor of mine, Joshus R. Giddings, "foltion of 1776. We have been dealing with lowing the lead of John Quincy Adams of elements and forces which have been at Massachusetts, almost alone, held up the work on this continent more than two hun-banner on this floor, and, from year to year, dred and fifty years. I trust I shall be comrades came to his side. Through evil excused if I take a few moments to trace and through good report he pressed the some of the leading phases of the great strug-question upon the conscience of the nation; gle. And in doing so, I beg gentlemen to see that the subject itself lifts us into a region where the individual sinks out of sight and is absorbed in the mighty current of great events. It is not the occasion to award praise or pronounce condemnation.ers of slavery believing honestly and sinIn such a revolution men are like insects, that fret and toss in the storm, but are swept onward by the resistless movements of elements beyond their control. I speak of this revolution not to praise the men who aided it, nor to censure the men who resisted it, but as a foroe to be studied, as a mandate to be obeyed.

and bravely stood in his place in this House, until his white locks, like the plume of Henry of Navarre, showed where the battle for freedom raged most fiercely.

And so the contest continued; the support

cerely that slavery was a divine institution; that it found its high sanctions in the living oracles of God and in a wise political philosophy; that it was justified by the necessities of their situation; and that slaveholders were missionaries to the dark sons of Africa, to elevate and bless them. We are so far past the passions of that early time that we In the year 1620 there were planted, upon can now study the progress of the struggle this continent, two ideas irreconcilably hos- as a great and inevitable development, withtile to each other. Ideas are the great warout sharing in the crimination and recrimiriors of the world; and a war that has no ideas nation that attended it. If both sides could behind it is simply brutality. The two ideas have seen that it was a contest beyond their were landed, one at Plymouth Rock from control; if both parties could have realized the Mayflower, and the other from a Dutch the truth that "unsettled questions have no brig at Jamestown, Virginia. One was the pity for the repose of nations," much less old doctrine of Luther, that private judg-for the fate of political parties, the bitterment, in politics as well as religion, is the ness, the sorrow, the tears, and the blood right and duty of every man; and the other might have been avoided. But we walked that capital should own labor, that the negro in the darkness, our paths obscured by the had no rights of manhood, and the white smoke of the conflict, each following his own nan might justly buy, own, and sell him convictions through ever-increasing fiercend his offspring forever. Thus freedomness, until the debate culminated in "the nd equality on the one hand, and on the last argument to which kings resort." ther the slavery of one race and the domi- This conflict of opinion was not merely astion of another, were the two germs plant- one of sentimental feeling; it involved our ›d on this continent. In our vast expanse whole political system; it gave rise to two of wilderness, for a long time, there was radically different theories of the nature of room for both, and their advocates began our Government: the North believing and the race across the continent, each develop-holding that we were a nation, the South ining the social and political institutions of sisting that we were only a confederation of their choice. Both had vast interests in sovereign States, and insisting that each common; and for a long time neither was State had the right, at its own discretion, to