Page images
PDF
EPUB

tleman; that is all I know about him. I do not know anything of his sympathies, whether they are for or against the Union.

The SPEAKER. It is not in order to call members by name.

Mr. COX. I hope the gentleman will answer one question frankly, and it is this: whether that horse "Jeff Davis" which he has spoken of is a good running horse? [Laughter.]

IN SENATE.
MONDAY, May 5, 1862.

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. Dr. SUNDERLAND. The Journal of Friday last was read and approved.

PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS.

Mr. LATHAM presented a petition of citizens of Nevada Territory, praying for the establishment of a semi-weekly mail route from Susanville, California, to Humboldt City, Nevada Territory; which was referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.

Mr. GRIMES presented a petition of citizens
of Vernon Springs, Howard county, Iowa, pray-

Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river; which
was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs
and the Militia.

Mr. HOWE presented a petition of citizens of
Manitowoc, in the State of Wisconsin, praying
for the construction of a ship canal between Lake
Michigan and the Mississippi river; which was
referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and

the Militia.

Mr. FISHER. No, he does not run at all. He is a trotter. [Renewed laughter.] I hope if the gentleman has taken anything by his motion, he will make the most of it in the great State of Ohio. These, sir, are a few of the members of the loyal company, commanded by the loyal Captain John B. Pennington, who has been held up to the worlding for the construction of a ship canal between as a persecuted martyr of liberty. Such are a few of the men whose defense as true patriots has been vainly attempted. From one-nay, sir, not from one, but from many-know the character of all those who have been arrested in my State, and whose arrests have been so loudly complained of by secession sympathizers, and that of their defender. Nay, sir, I will not rest his character here, but I now declare that he who has undertaken that defense, scarcely a year ago declared to me, on the holy Sabbath, with a bitterness which shocked me, that he would be glad to have it in his power to hang Lincoln and Jeff Davis upon the same trec. Now, sir, when I hear a man complain that all the world are rogues, I am convinced that there is one rogue at least in it; so when a man attempts to defend others as loyal who are the avowed friends of Jeff Davis, and expresses a desire to hang Davis and Lincoln upon the same tree, I take him to mean to hang Lincoln if he can, and let Davis go scot free. Now, sir, the question was asked me by the gentleman from Ohio whether I had not gone through the entire list of the population of the State of Delaware. I say, no, I have not. I may have gone through a considerable portion of the list of this wicked Breckinridge secession party, of which I fear my friend from Ohio was a member.

Mr. COX. No, sir; I was not. [Laughter.] Mr. FISHER. I beg pardon. I learn that the gentleman was a Douglas man, and that, with me, will be sufficient to hide a multitude of past sins.

Mr. COX. If the gentleman does not state his facts a little better, we will not be able to believe all he said; and I am inclined to do so. I do not want him to discredit himself by making any such statement as he has just made.

Mr. FISHER. I understand the gentleman from Ohio voted for Stephen A. Douglas. If so, I give him credit for it.

Mr. COX. "Voted for him!" I went for him, heart, soul, and boots. (Laughter.]

Mr. FISHER. I was only giving a few instances of disloyalty, and was going on to state that of this Hazlitt company, from which these arrests were made, out of less than forty members I have given a list of twenty or more convicted of expressing sentiments disloyal to the Union and the Constitution of the country. So far as the Douglas men, the Bell men, and the Lincoln men are concerned, and, I am proud to say, some who voted for Breckinridge, but who deserted him when he deserted his country's cause, Delaware stands to-day where she stood in 1776. She regards the Union of the States in the same light as the Jews regarded the ark of the covenant -as something which no man might dare to touch with profane hands and live. Sir, the majority of my people are loyal, and I hope and trust in God that they will ever continue to be loyal to the Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws.

Mr. LOVEJOY. Now, Mr. Speaker, to leave this inappropriate but very entertaining matter, ask leave of the House to discharge the Committee of the Whole House from the consideration of House bill No. 379.

Mr. WICKLIFFE. I owe the gentleman an objection, and I want to pay him. [Laughter.] I object.

JOHN CONARD.

Mr. CRISFIELD asked and obtained leave to have withdrawn from the files of the House the papers in the case of John Conard, late United States marshal of the district of Pennsylvania. And then, on motion of Mr. SHEFFIELD, (at a quarter past four o'clock, p. m.,) the House adjourned till Monday next.

Mr. HARRIS presented two petitions of citizens of New York, praying that the "freedom of speech and of the press shall not be abridged," and that "the New York Caucasian and all other Democratic papers now excluded from the mails be allowed the same privileges as Republican and abolition papers;" which were referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.

He also presented three petitions of citizens of the city of New York, praying for the passage of a general uniform bankrupt law; which were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

He also presented a petition of Sarah A. Mower,
widow of Thomas G. Mower, late a surgeon in

the regular Army of the United States, praying
for a pension; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Pensions.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts, presented a
memorial of James M. Beebe & Co. and others,
merchants of Boston, remonstrating against the
adoption of the system of taxation proposed by
the Boards of Trade of Boston and New York,
recommending a tax on all sales of merchandise;
which was referred to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. COWAN presented the petition of W. C. Jewett, praying for constitutional popular sentiment to govern, through a restoration of the freedom of the press, opposing European dictation, reurging an increase of the Army and Navy to cover the South and a reserve North to check now European southern sympathy; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

He also presented a petition of citizens of Bris-
tol, Pennsylvania, praying for the location of a
national armory and foundery on Burlington or
Matinicunk Island, midway between Burlington,
in the State of New Jersey, and Bristol, in the State
of Pennsylvania, in the river Delaware; which was
referred to the select committee on the subject of
a national armory and foundery.

PAPERS WITHDRAWN AND referred.
On motion of Mr. CLARK, it was
Ordered, That the petition and papers of Thatcher Per-
kins and William McMahon, praying an extension of their
patent for an improvement in the wheels of locomotive en-
gines, on the files of the Senate, be referred to the Com-
mittee on Patents and the Patent Office.

BOUNTY TO DISCHARGED VOLUNTEERS.

Mr. TEN EYCK submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia be instructed to inquire into the propriety of extending the provisions of the act of July, 22, 1861, which allows $100 to volunteers when honorably discharged, who shall have served two years or during the war, to such volunteers as may have been or hereafter may be employed under that act, and who may have been or hereafter may be disabled by wounds or sickness and honorably discharged from service.

REPORT FROM A COMMITTEE.

Mr. SAULSBURY, from the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office, to whom was referred the petition of Edward Harte, of San Francisco, praying payment for services rendered in the preparation of the report of the Commissioner of Patents on the census of 1850, submitted a report, accompanied by a bill (S. No. 299) for the

relief of Rose M. Harte, widow of Edward Harte; which was read, and passed to a second reading. The report was ordered to be printed.

BILLS INTRODUCED.

Mr. WADE asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 298) donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts; which was read twice by its title, referred to the Committee on Public Lands, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. LATHAM asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 300) granting to the State of California the tract of land known as the Colorado Desert, for the purpose of introducing a sufficient supply of fresh water upon and over the same; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Lands.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts, asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a joint resolution (S. No. 78) to suspend all payments under the act approved March 25, 1862, entitled "An act to secure to the officers and men actually employed in the western department, or department of Missouri, their pay, bounty, and pension," and for other purposes.

He also asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a joint resolution (S. No. 79) in relation to an exchange of prisoners; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

Mr. CARLILE asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 301) to secure to the citizens of the United States their right to personal liberty; which was read twice by its title.

regulate by law the power of arrest exercised by Mr. CARLILE. The object of this bill is to the President through Government officials, and it is upon the suggestion that I think was made Judiciary Committee, the Senator from Illinois, at the summer session by the chairman of the Mr. TRUMBULL.] I offer it that it may get be

fore the committee while they have under consideration a bill which was submitted a few days ago by the Senator from Ohio, and referred to that committee. I move that this bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and ordered to be printed.

The motion was agreed to.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.

A message from the House of Representatives by Mr. ETHERIDGE, its Clerk, announced that the House had passed the following bills, in which the concurrence of the Senate was requested:

A bill (C. C. No. 108) for the relief of John Skirving;

A bill (No. 163) for the benefit of the legal representatives of John McLaughlin;

A bill (No. 166) for the relief of the surviving children of Israel Frisbie, a revolutionary soldier; A bill (No. 194) for the relief of Joseph B. Eaton;

A bill (No. 195) for the reciprocal relinquishment of certain claims between the United States and the representatives of Robert Brent, deceased; A bill (No. 218) for the relief of the legal representatives of Frederick F. Brose, deceased; A bill (No. 272) for the relief of Brigadier General Joseph G. Totten;

A bill (No. 273) for the relief of Thomas Fors

ter;

A bill (No. 274) to pay B. Y. Shelley for his claim and improvements taken from him by the Omaha reservation, in the Territory of Nebraska; A bill (No. 329) for the relief of John Goulding;

A bill (No. 345) for the relief of George B. Simpson;

A bill (No. 444) to amend an act entitled "An act to provide increased revenue from imports, to pay interest on the public debt, and for other purposes," approved August 5, 1861; and

A bill (No. 454) for the relief of the register of the land office at Vincennes, Indiana, and for other purposes.

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED.

The message also announced that the Speaker of the House of Representatives had signed an enrolled bill (S. No. 177) for the relief of Sylves

ter Crooks; and it was signed by the President pro tempore.

HOUSE BILLS REFERRED.

The following bills from the House of Representatives were severally read twice by their titles, and referred as indicated below:

A bill (C. C. No. 108) for the relief of John Skirving-to the Committee on Claims.

A bill (No. 163) for the benefit of the legal representatives of John McLaughlin-to the Committee on Private Land Claims.

A bill (No. 166) for the relief of the surviving children of Israel Frisbie, a revolutionary soldier -to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims.

A bill (No. 194) for the relief of Joseph B. Eaton-to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

A bill (No. 195) for the reciprocal relinquish

ment of certain claims between the United States and the representatives of Robert Brent, deceased -to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

A bill (No. 218) for the relief of the legal representatives of Frederick F. Brose, deceased-to the Committee on Naval Affairs.

A bill (No. 272) for the relief of Brigadier General Joseph G. Totten-to the Committee on Claims.

A bill (No. 273) for the relief of Thomas Forster-to the Committee on Claims.

A bill (No. 274) to pay B. Y. Shelley for his claim and improvements taken from him by the Omaha reservation, in the Territory of Nebraska -to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

A bill (No. 329) for the relief of John Goulding -to the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office.

A bill (No. 345) for the relief of George B. Simpson-to the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office.

A bill (No. 444) to amend an act entitled "An act to provide increased revenue from imports, to pay interest on the public debt, and for other purposes," approved August 5, 1861-to the Committee on Finance.

A bill (No. 454) for the relief of the register of the land office at Vincennes, Indiana, and for other purposes to the Committee on Public Lands.

BILL BECOME A LAW.

A message from the President of the United States by Mr. NICOLAY, his Secretary, announced that the President had approved and signed, on the 3d instant, an act (S. No. 124) relating to highways in the county of Washington and District of Columbia.

MAJOR AND BRIGADIER GENERALS.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts. I am directed by the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the bill (S. No. 297) to limit the appointment of major generals and brigadier generals in the Army and volunteers, to report it back with an amendment. The bill provides for the appointment of twenty major generals and two hundred brigadier generals. The amendment of the committee proposes simply to make the major generals thirty, instead of twenty. We have now twenty-five major generals in the regular Army and in the volunteers. If there be no objection, I should like to put the bill on its passage. I think it should be passed at once.

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill.

Mr. HARRIS. This bill may be all right, but I want to be sure about it. It is well known that there are a large number of brigadier generals who have been in the service for months, whose nominations have not been confirmed. Now, I want to know if the passage of this bill will not throw some of those officers out of the service. Suppose it should happen, the way we are going on here, nominations coming in rapidly, being confirmed without much order, the number of two hundred should be reached, and then it should be said: "These officers, who have been in the service, good officers, acknowledged to be such, cannot be confirmed because we have got to the limit of the law." I do not want to see any such state of things as that brought about by any such hasty legislation as this may prove to be.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment reported by the committee to

strike out "twenty" and insert "thirty," limiting the number of major generals.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts. I suppose the Senator from New York is not opposed to that amendment.

Mr. HARRIS. No, sir; I speak in reference to the whole thing.

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts. A single word in reply to the Senator from New York, and then I think we shall pass the bill in a moment. I can assure the Senator that his solicitude is without any foundation. We have confirmed, I think, one hundred and sixty-nine brigadier generals; we have before us about thirty for confirmation, some of whom are in command of brigades and have been nominated some time. Those will be acted This bill provides for the appointment of two hunupon before we act on those more recently sent in. dred. I think about one hundred and ninety-five or one hundred and ninety-six is the number of those who have been confirmed and are now before the Senate; so that I think there is no trouble to be apprehended on that point. I hope the bill may be passed for the reason that there are being nominated more brigadier generals than we ought to have. I believe to-day we have fifty more than is necessary. I think one hundred and fifty was about what it was necessary to have. I hope, therefore, the bill will be passed, and I can assure the Senator-I know I speak the sentiment of the committee that no advantage will be taken of these gentlemen by any such bill.

Mr. HALE. I do not expect to succeed, but I want to record my own vote to limit the number to one hundred and eighty instead of two hundred. I move to strike out two hundred and insert one hundred and eighty, limiting the brigadier generals to that number.

Mr. CLARK. It seems to me we ought to fix this bill with regard to the service, and not with regard to the appointments. We have the statement from the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs that one hundred and fifty brigadier generals would be enough, and now, we hesitate to strike down the number from two hundred to one hundred and eighty; that is thirty more than we want; and all for what? Because we have got these men before us as nominees and have not manliness enough to stand up and reject them. Now let us make the service what it ought to be and fix the number as it ought to be. If one hundred and fifty are enough, put them down to one hundred and fifty, if we have not more already; at any rate, put it down to the limit we have, and not make another if we have enough. Certainly we should strike it down to one hundred and eighty. Why do we make them? What are we legislating for? For the good of these individuals, or for the service of the country? Are we here to appoint and confirm men when the country does not want them, and when the country is already loaded with a debt that we can scarcely carry? It seems to me, the statement of the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs is a very singular one. I understood him to say we have got enough, that one hundred and fifty would be enough; and now I understand him to say, do not strike it down to one hundred and eighty. I ask the chairman why he wants two hundred, if one hundred and fifty are enough?

not know much about this matter; but from the statement of the chairman of the committee, and from other statements, particularly that made by my friend from lowa, [Mr. GRIMES], who understands the matter, I think one hundred and fifty is quite as many as we want, and one hundred and fifty is more than any other nation in the world would have for the Army we have got. My own judgment would be that the number should be limited to one hundred and fifty, with a provision that the law should not vacate the office of any of those who have already been appointed and confirmed, but that when vacancies occur in the list of brigadier generals, by death, resignation, or promotion, there should be no more appointments made until the number is reduced to one hundred and fifty. There is great force in the suggestion made by my colleague that the action of the Senate in providing for two hundred brigadier general when we want but one hundred and fifty will be an indication to the country that we are legislating for the salvation of the brigadier generals and not for the salvation of the country, and that we think it of more consequence to save a few brigadiers than we do to regard the interests of the country.

Mr. CLARK. I understand the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs now to say that his opinion is not changed in regard to the wants of the service, that one hundred and fifty would have been abundantly enough, but because the President and the Secretary of War have advised two hundred, therefore he is inclined to surrender the judgment of the Military Committee to the judgment of the President and the Secretary of War, and to go for the two hundred. That is the position that I understand the Senator occupies. Now, I am not disposed to give up my judgment in that matter. If it is the deliberate judgment of the Committee on Military Affairs that one hundred and fifty is enough, I think that the Senate ought to stand by the judgment of its committee.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts. I did not speak of the judgment of the committee, but of my own opinion.

Mr. CLARK. Well, I will take the Senator's own judgment. My judgment coincides with his, and I think we had better have the firmness to say we have got enough. Take one hundred and eighty, if you please. I should like the last proposition of my colleague the best; but let us limit the number at least to one hundred and eighty, and then we shall have an opportunity of confirming eleven more, and save to the country the expense of twenty.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. President

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate will now proceed to the consideration of the special order for this hour, which is the homestead bill; and that is before the Senate on the amendment moved by the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. CARLILE,] to strike out the whole of the original bill after the enacting clause and to insert what has been heretofore read in the form of a substitute. Mr. POMEROY. Mr. President

Mr. HALE. I ask the Senator from Kansas to give way to me. I want to make a motion.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. No motions are in order, except by unanimous consent, the homestead bill being, by special order, now before the Senate.

Mr. POMEROY. I have no objection to yielding for the Senator's motion, temporarily, if it will occupy no time.

Mr.HALE. It will occupy some time. I move to postpone all prior orders for the purpose of taking up a resolution relating to the business of the Senate that I submitted some week or two ago. Mr. HARLAN. Is that motion in order? The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The motion is in order.

Mr. WILSON, of Massachusetts. I expressed my own judgment that one hundred and fifty would have been enough; but the President and Secretary of War thought otherwise, and they have sent in here about one hundred and nine-five names for confirmation as brigadier generals; and therefore, as the bill was introduced to make the number two hundred, we thought it best not to change it, and as two hundred would cover all that were sent in, we had better stand upon that. That is my judgment to-day. As an original question, I think we could have got along very well and very comfortably with one hundred and fifty brigadier generals. That is my opinion, and has been my opinion, and I have urged that too many were sent in. I have over and over again remonstrated in regard to it, that we were having too many of The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator these men sent in. But we have confirmed one himself had not the floor except by common conhundred and sixty-nine, and we have before us sent of the Senate. Neither Senator has the floor for confirmation enough to make the whole num- except by common consent, and the Chair underber about one hundred and ninety-five or one hun-stood that consent to have been given. dred and ninety-six.

Mr. HALE. I simply want to say that I do

Mr. HARLAN. Iunderstood the Senator from Kansas to have the floor, and not to give consent to the introduction of any other resolution.

Mr. HARLAN. I understood the Senator from Kansas to be entitled to the floor.

THE OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS, PUBLISHED BY JOHN C. RIVES, WASHINGTON, D. C.

THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, 2D SESSION.

Mr. COLLAMER. I understand the Senator from Kansas has the floor on the homestead bill. Mr. POMEROY. Yes, sir. Mr. HALE. And he gave way to me for the purpose of making a motion.

Mr. POMEROY. The homestead bill was assigned, on my motion, to come up at half past twelve o'clock this morning.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct; and if the Senator took the floor on that bill, to which he was entitled, and did not yield it to the Senator from New Hampshire to interpose his motion, the Senator from Kansas is in order, and will proceed upon that bill.

Mr. HALE. Will the Senator yield the floor to enable me to move that the resolution be taken up, for the purpose of having it assigned as a special order for a fixed time?

Mr. POMEROY. I will yield temporarily for that purpose.

Mr. HALE. Then I will make a motion that I think will give rise to no debate. I ask the Senate simply to indulge me with fixing a time when they will consider the resolution I introduced some weeks ago relative to the order of debate in the Senate, and I simply want to say that unless the Senate take that power in their hands in this

Mr. DAVIS. I rise to a question of order. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kentucky will state his question of order. Mr. DAVIS. I inquire of the Chair if the Senator from New Hampshire is in order?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire is in order.

Mr. DAVIS. Has he a right, if the Chair please, to make a motion out of the order of business without the general or unanimous concurrence of the Senate?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. He has the right to the floor and to make the motion, and to make his preliminary remarks on that motion, by the Senator entitled to the floor on the special order yielding to him for that purpose, which has been done.

Mr. HALE. Then, sir, I will proceedMr. DAVIS. One other questionMr. HALE. I call the Senator from Kentucky to order.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kentucky is in order when he rises to a question of order.

Mr. HALE. Yes, but not after that is decided, unless an appeal be taken.

Mr. DAVIS. I want to know what the decision of the Chair is. I do not want to make any captious objection, but I wish to know the principle that is now under consideration, and what the decision of the Chair in relation to it is.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The decision of the Chair is according to a practice which occurs here every day, and often many times a day, with the consent of the Senator entitled to the floor.

Mr. COLLAMER. Can a motion to fix a day for a special order be made unless the subject matter is up before us?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The subject matter is up by force of the rule itself, the Chair calling attention to that subject which is assigned as a special order when the hour arrives.

Mr. COLLAMER. That special order is the homestead bill. Now the Senator from New Hampshire proposes to fix a day for the consideration of a certain resolution of his which is not up.

Mr. HALE. I have not made any such motion. Mr. COLLAMER. I so understood the Senator. At least he said he was going to make that

motion.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The homestead bill was before the Senate for consideration, and upon that bill the Senator from Kansas had the floor, and, according to customary and frequent practice, the Senator from New Hampshire asked the Senator from Kansas to yield the floor to him for the purpose of interposing a motion. The Senator interposed his motion, and it was in order.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1862.

Mr. DAVIS. Now to my question of order, Mr. President. What vote of the Senate will be required to permit the Senator from New Hampshire to get his subject before the Senate?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Kentucky will repeat his inquiry.

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir. I understand that the Senator from New Hampshire has got the courtesy of the Senator from Kansas to occupy the floor for a few minutes to get some business up out of its ordinary course; and I inquire of the Chair what vote of the Senate will be required to enable the Senator from New Hampshire to get his business up, that business being out of the ordinary course of business of the Senate?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will require a majority to take up any business out of its order. The Senator from Kansas yields the floor to the Senator from New Hampshire to interpose his motion, and that motion can be carried, if objection be made, only by a majority of the Senate.

Mr. DAVIS. If the motion of the Senator from New Hampshire prevails, it will displace the special order of the day, then.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire accompanied his motion with the further explanation that it was his purpose only to move an assignment for its consideration at a future day, and not to consider it at this time.

Mr. DAVIS. But I do not want it to come up

at all.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The motion of the Senator from New Hampshire is before the Senate, and it is for the Senate to decide whether the resolution shall be taken up, the Senator stating that the object is only to fix a day for its consideration hereafter.

Mr. DAVIS. The question that I propound to the Chair is this: if the motion of the Senator from New Hampshire prevails, will or will it not displace the special order of the day from its priority?

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will displace it momentarily; following out the suggestion of the Senator from New Hampshire, only so long as it will require the Senate (unless some person takes the floor and makes an elaborate speech upon it) to take a vote ordering its postponement to a future day.

Mr. DAVIS. That is a pretty summary way of getting up business out of its order.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is a common practice. The question is on the motion of the Senator from New Hampshire, that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the resolution indicated by him.

Mr. HALE. If the Senate will indulge me for a single moment, I wish to say a word; but I shall not trespass upon the courtesy of my friend from Kansas. I am satisfied that we cannot do the business which we came here to do, unless we do what every other legislative assembly on God's earth does except this Senate, and that is to have the power in the hands of a majority of fixing a time when talk shall end and action shall begin. If the Senate will take up this resolution, I shall then move to postpone it to Friday next, and make it the special order for the day, so that it may be disposed of.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore put the question on the motion of Mr. HALE, and declared that it appeared not to be agreed to.

Mr. HALE. I ask for the yeas and nays. I want the question settled.

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted-yeas 17, nays 22; as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Carlile, Dixon, Hale, Harris, Howard, Howe, King, Lane of Indiana, Latham, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Powell, Stark, Thomson, Wilkinson, Wilson of Massachusetts, and Wilson of Missouri-17.

NAYS-Messrs. Anthony, Browning, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Harlan, Henderson, McDougall, Saulsbury, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Willey, and Wright -22.

So the Senate refused to take up the resolution for consideration.

NEW SERIES.....No. 122.

HOMESTEAD BILL.

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (H. R. No. 125) to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, and to provide a bounty for soldiers in lieu of grants of the public lands.

Mr. POMEROY. Mr. President, it may be thought to be an unfavorable time to introduce a bill to dispose of the public lands, or a bill that puts the lands out of the reach of our own Government to sell or to pledge for the purpose of raising revenue. I know full well the anxiety of every Senator to devise every means to raise money for the necessities of the Treasury in this hour of extreme anxiety for the public credit. Never since we existed as a Government have we been called upon to raise such untold millions of dollars to replenish an exhausted Treasury as at this moment, and the necessity of husbanding all our resources and making everything available is apparent to all. The rebellion with which we are contending is not so much a question of arms as of money. To be sure it looms up in far greater become the most formidable conspiracy that ever proportions than was at first imagined, and has threatened a nation of the world; still, I repeat that there is far more to apprehend from the short ness of our purse than the insufficiency of our soldiers or generals.

I say, then, that if this be a bill to deplete the Treasury of the United States to any great extent, and hence weaken the power of the Government in the great work it has undertaken, the proposition to pass the bill should not be entertained for a single moment; for I hold that to this work should every other enterprise be held in subserviency. The first great question should at once be settled-have we a country left to us? and, as an afterthought, how shall we settle and govern it? For if we are always to have a divided country, or one distracted and torn, without protection or law, it is of little importance whether our public domain is settled and civilized or left for wandering savages or marauding rebels. And in this statement I am not insensible to the fact that this war question will be favorably settled when it is seen that the financial resources of the Government are equal to this unlooked-for emergency. The fate of this controversy hangs on the dollars we are able to pay.

If, then, this homestead bill is to weaken materially the resources of the Government in this crisis, then I am not for the bill.

But what are the facts? Are the public lands under our system of management likely to yield us any income during the war, or have they yielded any net profits during the past five years? That the land offices do nothing at present is perfectly evident. There is not land enough now selling to keep up the expenses of the offices. But little is doing in the General Land Office here, and really nothing in the local offices in the new States and Territories, and they have not been a source of revenue for some years past, owing principally to the fact that almost all the land entered at our land offices has been paid for in land warrants. Thus, while we have been taking up the "scrip of the Government," we have not put many hard dollars into the Treasury of the United States; and for this same reason the public lands will not yield a revenue to the Government for some years

to come.

With these facts fully in mind, the former Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report to Congress, said:

"Land warrants yet to be presented, issued under several acts of Congress, will require 78,922,513 acres, valued at $98,653,140. "At the above average of 4,000,000 acres per annum, it will take over seventeen years to absorb and satisfy the warrants already issued or authorized by law." What has been will be, as a general rule. And it may be fairly stated, as a proposition susceptible of the clearest demonstration, that, for years to come, under the land system as it is now established, they will yield no revenue to the public Treasury. They have not, over and above the expenses of the survey and sale, in years past; they

will not in years to come. It becomes, then, a question to be fairly considered by Senators, how can the public lands be made to yield a revenue to the Government? If not directly by sale, can they indirectly by settlement?

This, then, Mr. President, is the question I propose to discuss, involved in the passage of this homestead bill, namely, that the speed y settlement of the country by actual occupants of the land, though they be "small-fisted farmers," taking a honestead without expense or benefit to the Government, will produce more revenue to the country, and vastly more increase its wealth and productiveness than any present or prospective sale, even though $1 25 could be realized for every acre. For my own part, I believe it should not be the policy of the Government to derive a revenue from a sale of the land, any more than from a sale of the air or the sunshine. These natural elements and auxiliaries of human life are God's great gifts to man, and the Government may as well bottle up the one as deed away the other. The great command was, when our earth came fresh, green, and beautiful from a divine hand, to take it, to people and subdue it. Monopolizing great tracts, having estates embracing townships and counties, though, perhaps, gratifying to the individual, is always destructive of the general good. The indiscriminate sale of the public lands opens the door to the wildest speculations and the most unprincipled land monopolies. The greatest curse to a new country, and, indeed, to all countries, is to have large tracts of unoccupied lands held by non-residents and non-occupants. It retards the growth of a community, paralyzes its industry, delays internal improvements, forbids a general system of free schools, standing directly in the way of the moral, social, and religious improvement of the people, tending to produce a worse state of things in this country than has been experienced in Europe. And this history in the Old World has been written in tears and sighs. It has entered like an iron into the soul of the laborer, deadened his hopes and extinguished his aspirations to rise in the scale of society.

country and fatherland, the cherished objects of
endeared affection, for the sake of becoming an
American nationalized.

I urge, then, the passage of this bill. First. I
will say from the fact that the public lands have
already sold for more money than they cost, and
that if they never net the Government another dol-
lar over the expense of the survey and sale, still
there has been no money lost in purchase and cut-
ting up into small farms of this extended country.

The Secretary of the Interior, in his report to Congress in 1850, (I have not estimated expenses since,) puts down the aggregate receipts from the sale of the public lands to January of that year at the enormous sum of $135,339,092, and the entire cost at $74,957,879, leaving a net balance of receipts over expenditures of $60,381,213. From this balance you may deduct the $15,000,000 we have since paid Mexico for New Mexico and California; also, $10,000,000 we paid since to Texas in settling her boundary; and $10,000,000 more for indemnity and every other expense justly chargeable to the cost of the public lands, and you will still have a balance of receipts over expenditures, showing that the lands can now be gratuitously disposed of without loss to the Government. They have now ceased to be revenue. The Secretary of the Interior, in his report to Congress of this year (Ex. Doc., p. 444) says:

"It will be seen from these statements that the public lands have ceased, for the present, at least, to be source of revenue to the Government."

In the first place, as I have and shall show that since the issuing of large quantities of land warrants, and in making them assignable, and large grants to States and railroad companies, the whole of the public lands likely to be taken for many years to come, will be entirely absorbed in taking In this Government scrip, and the United States Treasury will not secure money enough to meet the current expenses of the various land offices, and hence no revenue will be accruing to the Government; therefore a change in the policy of administering the public lands will not deplete the Treasury, provided we receive at the land offices, money enough for the incidental expenses. And here I may be allowed to say that the amount received for the sale of the public lands annually has always been a very inconsiderable sum, and never relied upon for a revenue to support the Government, either in peace or war. I suppose that the proposition to sell a large tract of our unoccupied domain to a foreign country to raise money to carry on the war would not be entertained in any quarter. Our settled policy in this regard is already marked in the high duties imposed by our late tariff bill, and also in the tax bill for revenue now before Congress. These two methods of raising revenue have become the fixed policy of the Government. The former, a kind of indirect tax, has proved abundant in time of peace; the latter is resorted to only as one of the necessities of the war.

Now, then, I ask, how can the public lands be General Jackson, in his annual message to Con- used so as to best increase the wealth of the coungress in 1832, used these words:

"Independent farmers are everywhere the basis of society and the true friends of liberty. To put an end forever to all partial and interested legislation on this subject, and to afford every American citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent freehold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea of raising a future revenue out of the sales of the public lands."

Sir, though the hero of that period sleeps in the grave of his own home, still he is not dead, not wholly gone. No man who has nobly lived can ever wholly die. He shall live in the generations that shall come after him, and in the influence he has exerted, until the past is forever forgotten, and the future shall blend "into the new heavens and the new earth.'

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair is

suspend his remarks, the hour having arrived for
the consideration of the special order of the day
assigned for one o'clock.

try, and so be the better able to consume the imports of the country, (for, after all, the consumer pays all the duties,) as well, also, as to meet the taxes imposed by the Government? And here let it be observed that the wealth of a nation does not consist in the money paid into its treasury, exacted, as it often is, from half-paid toiling millions, nor in an endless unoccupied public domain, running to waste with wild men and wild buffaloes. But wealth consists in flocks and herds, cultivated fields, in well-paid labor, and well-directed energy. The strength of a nation does not consist in the numbers or bravery of the men in her armies or navies, nor whether they are well or poorly led to the conflict, or not led at all. But real strength consists in being able to reproduce another army or navy when one is destroyed or captured, and in being able to sustain an unlimited force until the angel of peace descends to bless the land. Real strength consists in the hearts, the bones, the sinews of an independent, loyal, free

Mr. HARLAN. I move a postponement of that special order to allow the Senator from Kan-yeomanry, who have the comforts of a home, the sas to conclude his remarks.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. By common consent that course may be taken. No objection being made, the Senator from Kansas will proceed and conclude his remarks.

Under this influence England may present a splendid aristocracy-the proudest nobility of the word! Yet, standing side by side with these lords of creation are untaught millions, without aspira-obliged to call upon the Senator from Kansas to tions and without hope, and bound to travel on in the dead circle of decayed generations. Thirty thousand landlords hold the title deeds of the whole of Great Britain, while outside of their inclosures, by the wayside, are thousands on thousands of doomed and dying men and women, perishing for want of a few acres of God's earth on which to raise their daily bread. In Ireland there are two and a half millions who own not one foot of the soil they so carefully cultivate; yet they pay to their landlords $20,000,000 annually for the poor privilege of half living and half dying on their extended estates! Under such influences industry may daily be scen sitting in rags! and the greatest human energies, though for a time enlivened by hope, at last blends into the deadness of despair. Does any one desire to reproduce that picture in this country; to shut out the hope of free homes to a homeless people? If not, then I say let us open our extended domain to the home

less of our own country; yes, and of every country, for this is God's heritage, and hence the inheritance of mankind. I am, sir, for opening these lands for the landless of every nation under heaven. I care not whether he comes to us from the populous cities of our older States, or from the enlightened though oppressed nations of Europe. "No matter if he may have roamed the wilds of Siberia, or have been burned by a vertical sun." To me he is an American, if he has an American heart in his bosom; if he be inspired with American impulses and American hopes, and yields himself joyfully to the molding influence of American civilization. You and I, sir, are Americans because we were born here; we could not help it-no great merit in that; but the man who becomes an American from choice, and not necessity, who catches the free breezes of our republican institutions, though blown across a trackless ocean, and longs to identify himself with us in our struggles to perpetuate a free Government imbodied in constitutional liberty, established by law-I say I give thrice welcome to such an one, impelled, as he has been, to abandon home and

Mr. POMEROY. Mr. President, I have said that the public lands have sold for more than they cost, and hence the account can be closed without loss to the Government. But, in the cost I do not reckon the expenses of the war of the Revolution, and I should not, for that was not a war for land, but for the rights of mankind. I do not calculate the cost of the war of 1812, for that was a conflict to teach the nations that our dearest rights were

fear of a God, the love of mankind, and the inspiration of a good cause. Such an army will press gloriously onward to victory. The greatness of a nation does not consist in its high-sounding professions, in its lofty palaces, cathedrals, spires, and domes, ancient and honored names of the present or the past, living or dead. Men constitute the wealth, the strength, the greatness of a State,

"high-minded men,

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain." The wealth, the strength, the greatness of a naconsists in the largest number proportionate

safe and should be protected under the old flationhe whole of happy, contented, virtuous, and

of the Union, on the sea as well as on the land.
do not name, in the cost of the public domain, the
$100,000,000 spent in the Florida war, protracted
through two Administrations, for that was a war
for slavery and not for territory. I do not men-
tion the $200,000,000 spent in the Mexican war,
for we had to buy and pay millions to purchase
territory after we had got through the fighting. I
say only this, that every legitimate expense, justly
chargeable for territory, has already been paid
back to the Government in the sales of the lands.
Therefore it is that the Government may enter
upon its new policy of "free homesteads for free

men.

[ocr errors]

The great question to be settled by legislation,
and which must enter into the system adopted for
the disposal of the lands by Congress, is how
shall they be best disposed of so as to promote
the wealth of the nation and the perpetuity of the
Government, while, at the same time, we secure the
prosperity and happiness of the whole people.
In discussing this proposition, I shall try to
justify my vote for the homestead bill, and hope
also to commend its passage to others.

independent families it sustains. And I care not what other means of subsistence men may devise. The trades, the professions, the wits, the brains of a man may fail him; but the inspired truth will then even brighten with more complete effulgence, "that the earth abideth." With one hundred and sixty acres of God's free earth under a man in his own right, and genial skies above him, he shall not want. For "seed time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night" shall not fail him till the heavens be no more.

Now, then, to increase the revenue of the country, add to the number of self-sustaining families of the nation, to secure the development, growth, and happiness of a people, put a household upon every quarter section; make the father feel in his daily toil that himself and family have a portion of God's inheritance for mankind, exhaustless in productiveness, and as abiding as the earth. To a man so situated you may reasonably calculate that he will develop the character of a patriot, a philanthropist, and, under the divine culture, a Christian; for there is but little use to talk of

1862.

THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.

either to a man while he is houseless and home-
less, and when unsatisfied hunger is preying upon
the life-fountain. Give him first the comforts of
this life, and you may hopefully direct him to the
life to come. So, too, of his capacity and ability ||
to support the Government. As surely as you
provide for a man comfortably to support himself,
so surely you enable him to support your Gov-
ernment. As a consequence, if you deprive him
of self-support, he will be unable to support the
institutions of the country.

wife, children, household goods, all, and move
with slow pace into what has been called "the
wilderness of the West," far out upon the fron-
tier, beyond law and civilization, and there plant
himself down upon a homestead for life, is doing
a work for himself, his family, for civilization,
his country, and his God, that can never be fully
known, or its influence told, until the final disclo-

sure.

Such soldiers of civilization are sentinels, standing as the advance guard on the outposts of civilization, and will yet be high on the page of the world's unwritten history, and will be sure to keep the watch fires of freedom burning conspicuously. Slavery can never extend itself outside and beyond law! It can only follow in the wake of the police regulations that recognize and pro

tect it.

The revenue, as I have said, of the Government is derived from the tariff upon importations. When then you increase the ability of the consumer, you of course add to the amount of products he will consume, and, as a consequence, increase the I declare, to-day, in the American Senate that to amount of importations, as also the amount of the revenue. If you divide the whole amount of secure a country to freedom forever, I would prefer to have this homestead bill enacted into a law the imported goods consumed in the United States and extended to the whole public domain, than to by the whole population, you will see what reenact the ordinance of 1787, or establish again amount is annually consumed by each person. By reference to carefully prepared tables-up to the compromise line of 1820. Yet still, although I would not reconstruct it, I believe that the day the census of 1850--it appears that a fraction less than an amount of seven dollars a head was conthat witnessed the repeal of that ancient landmark of freedom was the saddest day that the country sumed (of the goods imported) by each and every has seen. Then and there was the disruption of person in the United States, including bond and the American Union. The ancient and time-honfree, old and young. Since 1850 it has been shown to exceed ten dollars each. Now, if the average ored compact and settlement was broken. The of each family, planted and supported by their party that prevailed and triumphed in these Halls at that hour have never known peace or harmony own labor under the provisions of this bill, were estimated at six persons, their annual consumpsince. When they tried to rally all hands to the tion of imported goods would equal sixty dollars rescue of slavery in the Lecompton iniquity, they to a household; and as the average tariff now were divided. They had a majority and could not equals thirty-three and a third per cent. on all use it. They divided at Charleston and divided at Baltimore, divided at the November election folgoods, each and every family of six persons will pay, or cause to be paid into the Treasury of the United States twenty dollars per annum for the lowing, and have been "a house divided against itself" ever since. That party which had made Presidents and Cabinets, and had shaped the legissupport of the Government. Now, the interest lation of the country at home and its diplomatic upon the $200 paid into the Treasury of the United States, provided this man could have paid it, at policy abroad for half a century, was divided and six per cent., would have been twelve dollars. But destroyed in a day. In the mean time, freedom, though crushed to earth, came up renewed again. by giving him this quarter section under the homestead bill, thus enabling him to raise and support The contest that closed here by the passage of the Nebraska bill on the 23d of May, 1854, was transhis family, the Government realizes twenty dollars-more than fifty per cent. increase in the ferred to the Territory. The principles that deBefore the revenue of the country, produced by this bill! But it was the last one-the last one. to say nothing of the endless comforts and hap-served to triumph here suffered a temporary defeat. feast of triumphant rejoicing over the passage of the piness accruing to a household, and hence to a community and the country for untold generabill was closed, the handwriting appeared upon the I repeat, sir, that the argument wall, and all who had sight left to see could read for this system of disposing of the public lands is legibly: "thy dominion divided and finished." irresistible, it is overwhelming. The scepter departed to others, and those who came forth from that triumph of nationalizing slavery, and opening every section of the public domain to it, undertook to carry their new doctrines to the

tions to come.

I need only refer to the productiveness of the public lands, to show that they are most desirable places of location and settlements. The rich fields of the West-if you can find that spot-arc fast becoming the granaries of the world. It is said that two millions of tons of grain were last year shipped to European ports, thus equalizing the commerce and trade of the two countries; and the consumer has been supplied though living six thousand miles from the producer. In 1860, it is said that the hay crop of the United States amounted to twenty millions of tons, worth, at ten dollars per ton, $200,000,000; but there is at least four times as many tons of grass on the public lands of the United States left annually to be consumed by fire or go to decay as there are tons saved and gathered into barns in all the States of the Union. And, too, there is more and fatter and better beef running wild upon the hoof of the buffalo, than all the domestic beef in the States. All that it needs is the hand of the husbandman to "make glad the wilderness and solitary place, and to bring forth springs in the desert."

I need not disguise the fact that while this system of small farms of a quarter section of land each will greatly promote the wealth, strength, and glory of the Republic, thus conducing to human happiness, near and remote, now and for all ages, still as a consequence and by virtue of the same law, it will secure the entire public domain to human freedom forever! The pioneer struggling amidst many discouragements upon the fronLier prairies of the West, comes nearer obeying the divine injunction to “gain his bread by the sweat of his brow," than any other man. The men who have, from their circumstances and education, been inured to self-reliance, can safely volunteer as soldiers of civilization in its onward progress across this continent, from the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri to the shores of the Pacific. The man who is able to put all he was on earth into one canvass-covered wagon,

new Territories.

I shall never forget the day when freedom and
slavery walked into Kansas side by side on equal
footing. Her prairie-swells at that day stood out
to our unaccustomed eyes, one above and beyond
another, like ocean waves, fresh, green, and beau-
tiful as when "the morning stars sang together.
Some of us had been accustomed to the bustle of
active business life, and there seemed around us
then the stillness of a Sabbath. The whole land
seemed to be resting in the sleep of ages; and our
first effort was to awaken it to civilization and to
life. Here was the first exhibition I ever wit-
nessed of slavery attempting to live without law.
But that party, flushed with the triumphs of late
congressional successes, soon galvanized a slave
code for Kansas. I need not repeat what followed.
It is now a part of the history of the Republic.
But there are unwritten volumes teeming with
The great champion of the
significance to me.
whether slavery was voted up or voted down, if
law under which we settled said," he did not care
we only had the right to vote." But there were
others that did care. We soon witnessed a country
containing land enough for an empire of itself,
and as rich as the valley of Nile, having been con-
secrated to freedom for more than thirty years by
ences of human slavery. The light and shade,
positive law, at once opened to the blighting influ-
triumphs and defeats, the successes and reverses,
of a three years' struggle, were to us of "'56"
what the rebellion of the entire slaveholding coun-
try of to-day is to the Republic. Ours was a
"but a prelude to the same song;
pocket edition,"l

66

a small edition of the same work.

Mr. President, I am here in my place in the Senate of the United States to declare that freedom was secured to Kansas, not by congressional

law, not by any arbitrary line-although time-
honored and sacred as having been established in
a spirit of compromise and concession-but free-
an ordinance, though unwritten, yet as legible and
dom was established by a law unrepeatable, by
as ineffaceable as the mountains thatare piled west
of us, and divide us from the free slopes of the
Pacific. Sir, freedom was secured in Kansas by
being planted in the soil, set to growing upon each
quarter section of land that we were able to hold,
secured. Hence it is that I said that I would
and made permanent as the homesteads that were
rather have the "free homestead bill "
ure to secure freedom to the Territories than the
reëstablishment of the compromise line of 1820, or
even the ordinance, reenacted, of 1787.

as a meas

Finally, I urge the passage of this bill as an inducement and as giving impetus to the progress of our settlements on the lines of travel to the two States bordering on the Pacific-California and Oregon. Nothing is more settled than the fact that the American people have, by their settlements made year by year, exhibited a determination to march across the continent and possess the land to the Pacific. This has been true since the fathers settled upon the ice-clad and rock-bound shores of New England.

"Westward the star of empire takes its way." During the first century, this moving, emigrating, adventurous, liberty-loving people had not even ascended the tops of the Alleghanies, but the second century witnessed the hardy pioneer building his cabin on the banks of the Ohio. What has not the third century seen in this direction? State after State assuming magnificent proportions, covered like a network with railroads and matters, sovereign, is seen sitting quietly down telegraphs, populous and rich, free, and, in some at the old homestead, with the original family of thirteen, and more yet to come; for our peoplenow gathering up the accumulated energies of "Father of Waters," thus redeeming from a wilthree centuries, and having crossed the great derness more than half the continent-are to-day ascending the eastern slopes that divide the unsettled portion of the public domain, and are already tunneling for gold at the base of the Rocky mountains.

While we are hesitating about securing by law a homestead for the landless of this and of every land, the enterprising pioneer is planting the institutions of freedom deep beneath the hearthstone of his cabin, on an avarage of a hundred miles I ask Senators farther westward year by year.

shall we hesitate longer about giving a homestead
to such a people? They have conquered an em-
pire and subdued it to civilization. Shall they
not have a foothold? They have made the waste
ness a fruitful field, and the "desert to bud and
Shall they not have a
blossom like the rose."
places glad, the silent prairie vocal, the wilder-
resting place? May not such a people have a
home, even though they may not be able to pay
the gold for it? Shall the weary one who has
spent a lifetime in opening the center of the conti-
nent for a generation soon to come after him have
no cabin home, where, at last, he may be able to
gather up his wasted energies, to lie down to die?
it as it is. We are impressed to this service by
Sir, we are urged to pass this bill at once-to pass
all the grateful remembrances of pioneer suffer-
ings, and as a tribute of acknowledgment for the
labors and trials of those now upon the frontier,
as well as affording a strong inducement to thou-
sands of others now lingering about our popu-
lous cities who hesitate to plant themselves in the
line of the volunteer soldiers of civilization, who
are now on the march to possess themselves of
the public domain, and to keep and perpetuate the
same as a precious legacy which they purpose to
for untold generations to come.
bequeath to the free-labor interests of the world

Sir, standing in this high point of the nation's we should not be insensible to the requirements sively with matters pertaining to the war, I think Capitol, and having been occupied almost excluof peace! We are, I trust, soon to have our brave soldiers returned to peaceful avocations. When no longer needed in the service, they will return to their anxious families. But a life in the camp, and distant marching and counter-marching, has so extended their vision and unsettled their plans and habits, that the returned soldier, then a citizen, will be among the first to move to the new

« PreviousContinue »