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[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, allother inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spellinghas been maintained.
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[Illustration: Hon. Schuyler Colfax.]
By WILLIAM H. BARNES, A.M.,
AUTHOR OF "THE BODY POLITIC."
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
327 TO 335 PEARL STREET.
1868.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
WILLIAM H. BARNES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the District of Columbia.
The history of the Thirty-Ninth Congress is a sequel to that of theRebellion. This having been overthrown, it remained for Congress toadminister upon its effects. It depended upon the decisions ofCongress whether the expected results of our victories should berealized or lost.
Now that the work of the Thirty-Ninth Congress stands forth complete,people naturally desire to know something of the manner in which therough material was shaped into order, and the workmanship by which thewhole was "fitly joined together." It can not be said of this fabricof legislation that it went up without "the sound of the hammer." Therap of the gavel was often heard enforcing order or limiting thelength of speeches.
Discussion is the process by which legislation is achieved; hence nohistory of legislation would be complete without presenting theprogress of debate preparatory to the adoption of important measures.The explanation of what our legislators did is found in what theysaid. Debates, as presented in the following pages, are by necessitymuch abridged. No attempt has been made to give a summary or synopsisof speeches. That which seemed to be the most striking orcharacteristic passage in a speech is given, in the words of theorator.
Many things said and done in the Thirty-Ninth Congress, of greatimportance to the nation, are by necessity omitted. The reader, informing his opinion of Congressional character and ability, will bearin mind that those who speak most frequently are not always the mostuseful legislators. Men from whom no quotation is made, and to whom nomeasure is attributed in the following pages, may be among theforemost in watchfulness for their constituents, and faithfulness tothe country.
If it should seem that one subject — the negro question — occupiedtoo much of the time and attention of Congress, it must be borne inmind that this subject was thrust upon Congress and the country by theissue of the Rebellion, and must be definitely and finally settledbefore the nation can be at rest