A Republican Senator On The Administration Policy

Mr. Cowansaid: I think, Mr. President, lliat our course in regard lo tho Sonlhern people has bcen ot' a character entirely the reverse of tliat which would have been suooessful in suppressing the rebellion. We were filled with incorrect ideas of the work we were engaged in, or of the only inethods by which we eouid perfonn the gigautic tak we liad undertaken. We started out with exaggerated nolions of' our own strength, aud we disilaincd to thiuk that our success depended upon tlie loysl men of the South; we thought we did not need them, and ircated them Hccordiogly. Think of such a proposition as ihat containcd in this law, that if they do not lay down their arms in sixty dave, they wil! ba punislied with the loss of their cstates ! How, pray, are they to hiy down their arms ? Surely we know enough to know that tliis is roere mockerv, and that the rebel president mjght as well expect a soldier in our anuios to lay down his arras on a promise of proteclion. Mr. President, I have soiaethues doubted wheiher we eould be serious when we expect any good result to come from such ineasures as tbis, which aot ouly exposes us to ridicule, but does harm to nar cause. But, above all thmgs, I would not have played iuto tlie hauds of the enenvy; I wonld uot havo done that wliich the rebels most desfred to. have done, because I have no doubt that this and kiuüred sciiemcs have beou ihe very ones Ihey most wanted us to adopt. I do not know ihat Jefferson Davis evor prays; but, if he does, I have oo doubt he would pray - Mr. ade. Pray for just such an advocace. Pray for just such a statesman as the honorable senator from Ohio, the most effective ally liê ever had or could have. He would havo prayed for me;:sure9 on our pari which were obnoxious to all the people of the South, loyal aad dis loyal, Union and disuuimi. He would have prayed that we sbould outrage all their common prejudices, and cherished beliefs; that we should do these things by giving ouraelves to the güidance of men whom it was part of their religión to hate; to hate personally and by name, witli an intensity larely witnessed ia the world before. II e would have prayed for conffscation, general and iudisoriruinate ; threateuiiig as well the vietims of the usurpation as the usuipors themselres; as well those we were bound to roscue as those we were Lound to punish. Ferveutly he would have prayed for our einancipation laws and proclamations as means to fire tlie southern heart, more potent than all others; thoy would rally the angry population to lus standard of revolt as if eaoh had a personal quarrel. He would ihen have i united South ; while as the res-jlt of the same measures, a divided and distracted Nortth. That s the way I lliiuk lie would have prayed, and would pray now. Is ny man so stupid as not to know that the great desiro on the pait of every rebel is to embark in revolt with bini the whole people of the disaffected districts ? Is not and has not that been considered eaough to insure success to liim ? And where does history show tlie failure of any united people, numbcring five or six millions, when they engaged in revolutions ? Nowhere; there is eo suel) case, What did we do to bring ihis unity about in the South ? We forgot our first resolve in Jiily, 18G1, to restore the Union alone, aud we went further, and gave out that we would also abolfsh slavery. Now, that was just esactly the point upon which all southern mon were the most tender, and at which they were the most prone to be alarmed and offended. Thnt was of all things the one best calculated to mako thern of one niind against us ■ thero was no other measure, indeed, which coukl have lost to the Union cause so many of thern. It is not a question either, as to wliether they were right or wrong - that was nutter for their consideraron, not ours ; for if wo were eo desirous of a Union with them, we ought not to have expected them to give up their most cherished iustitutions in order to effect it. Uuious are made by people taking one another as tbey are, and I think it has never yet occurred to auy man who was anxious to form a paimeiship with another, that lie fchould first attempt to force that other either to change his religión or politics. Ig not the answer obvious; would not the other say to bira : " If you d not like my principies, wliy do you wish to be partnes with me ? Have I not as good a right to ask you to change youra as a condition precedent ? " So it was wilb tho Sou'.nern peoplo ; they were all in favor of slavery, but one-half of them were stiil for Union with us as before, because they did not believe we were abolotiouists. Tbe other half were in open rebellion against us becauso they did believe it. Now, can any one concieve of greater folly on our part than that wo should detroy the faith of our friends and veril'y that of our eneinies ? Oould not any body have foretold we would have lost half by that, and ihen we would have no one left to form a unión with ? We drovo that half over to the rebels and thereby increased their streugth a thousaud-fuld. Is not all this history now 't The greit fact is staring us full in the face to-day ; we are contending with a united people, desperately iu earnest to resist us. Our most powerful armies, most skilfully led, have hcretofore failed to conquer them, and I ihink will fail, a long as wo pursuo tiiis fatal policy. Now, Mr. President, I appeal to senators whether it is not time to pause and inquire whether that policy, whieh has certainly united the soulhern people in Iheir nause, and has as certainly divided the northern peoplu in their support of ours, ought lo be abandoned it once. Wliy persist in it longer ? Can we do notliing to retrieve ourfortune by rctracing our stops 't dm wa not divide the rebels and uuite the loyal mea of the loyal sta'.os by going bnck'to the single idea af war for the Unioti; or is it now too Inte ? Have we lost irrecov?rably our hold on tlie aifeotions, of our countn ineu wlio wera for the Uniou in 1861 - oven in 1862 ? Is there no way by which wc could satir-fy them tbai we yet memi Uuiou, and nut conquest and subjugatiou ? And wliat a difference in tlio meaning of those two ph rases ! The first offers the hand of a brother, the second thieatons the joke of a niastev. Or are we obliged now to exohange tho hopes we had of Southern Unii.n uien for ihat other and miserable hope in tho negro ? Is ho all that is left of loyalty in the Soulli, and the oni y ally ivo can rely upou to aid us ia restoring tho Union ? Yc gods ? what have we come to at the lasl ? Either 10 yiel-1 to an unholv rebeilion, to each iiu'inber an empire, or to go into natioual conipaiiiciiiship with the negro ! Is this the aliernative to which our ma'lness has brougiit us ? Mr. President, these thingsare enotigh to drive a sane man uiad. Afler tll our pretentions and all our boaslings, how absurd will we aipear in the eyes of all ol her nations i f we fail in this Strugglel Especially as almosl tbe lueasurcs about which we have occupied ourselves for the last three ycars have beau based up on our succes3 alrtady assunied as a fixed fae(. Wc pryvided for confiscating the cstates of rebels before we got posessiou ; we emancipated siaves beibre wë got them from thcir masters, and we provided for the disposition of conquests we have not made; we have disposed of the skin of the bear and the bear itself is yet uocaught. All this we put upon the record; the statute-book will bear witmss against us in all com ing time ; and we cannot escape the consequences if we fail. Mr Presideut, our governracnt was iutended to be one of law. There was to be nothing in tha admiuistratien of it Icft to the aibitrary will of an individual or individuáis. This was its merit, or inteuded so, par excellence. I am for preserving its cliaracter in that respect striolly. Let no man, from the President down (o the most petty ol'cor., dare to do auything, wbeLlier to frieod or eneuiy, except as warranl.ed by law. Let us make war acoording to law, and let us have peaee according to law. If we figlit a belügferenl encmy, let us do it acconliug to the law of naiions. It' we iunih or restrain a refra story eitizen, let us do it by the law of the land, " by due procesa of law." Had we had faith in our i onstitutioa and laws aiid our people, e had not been in our present condition. Had we made war and war alone, the loyal people North and South to a man would liave beeu with us. The votce of faction,. if not entirely husiied, would have boen bartulees. The capital of the demagogue would have been wonhless, and the nation would havo been irresistible. Had we ireated the negro as the Constitution treats dim, as a persoD, is a another man ; had we ma Ie no distiuclion or difference between him and other eitizens, we had uot irouscd ngainst him that tribal antipathy which will be far more ükely to destroy him, than a false phiianthropy will b ükely to elovute him in the suale of beiug. If he was friendly to us, the same use could have beeu made of him ihat we have made ; we could have enlisted him in our arraiea uow, as we have been enlisting him iu our navy for long ycars. We could -have received him as n volunteer, if lis was able-bodiod, with out looking !o his complexion, and we could have drafted him without' inqui ring into the relations that existed batvvo'jn him and his master, any more than we enquire iuto the relations of the white man, of twonty years of age, with his parent or bis guardián. State laws adj usted all those questions, but to the United Stated it made no diffcrenee whether he owed his service to individuals or not ; he owcd his first duty to ihe republic as mili'ary service was re(juired. All ti.is was lawful, an.l no loyal man ever did or would havo complained of it, kindly done in the proper spirit. I have only to say, in conclusión, sir, that I hope that the joint resolulion will not be repealed, and that this and all kindred projects will fail in the future, for the simple reason that they streugtjien the rebels by unitiug thyir peopla with them, and they weaken the Union cause by dividing its friendsand distracting them with unnecessary issues. Let us unite upon the single idea of suppres sing the anned opposition to the government. Let the energies of the nation be devoled solely to that purpose, and success inay yet come, if success is possible. Üifcí UJiclugiW JÜgM&