n the 28th of February, the concurrent resolution still pending, Mr.
Nye, of Nevada, advocated its passage. He opposed the present
admission of any member from the seceding States. "We are told," said
he, "by the apologists of these men who are being elected on their
merits as rebels, to the exclusion of Union men, that 'we must not
expect too much of them.' I fully accede to this idea. A class that
during its whole political life has aimed at a monopoly of wealth, a
monopoly of labor, and a monopoly of political power; that engaged in
the attempt at revolution in order to establish more fully and to
perpetuate such monopoly; that, failing in this, has become more
bitter by disappointment, should have time; and, sir, I am decidedly
in favor of giving them all the time necessary for the most
substantial improvement. I would say to these men, 'Go home! Go back
and labor as industriously to disabuse the minds of your
constituencies as you labored to mislead and impose upon them. Tell
them that the Union Government always was and never can be any thing
else than a just Government. Tell them that the Constitution has
become the acknowledged sovereign, and that it presides in both houses
of Congress. Inform them, while you are about it, that the rebel
sympathizers and apologists in the North can do them no good; that
they are acting as much out of time and propriety now as they did in
the time of the war, when their encouragement only prolonged the
conflict and added to Southern disaster. You may say to your
constituencies that the majority in Congress is very tenacious on the
subject of the Union war debt; that it is determined to keep faith
with the national creditors; that it is bent on adopting and throwing
around it all the safeguards and precautions possible; and that your
admission just now, and your alliance with Northern sympathizers,
would not be propitious in raising the value of our public securities.
While you are conferring with your constituents, you may as well
repeat to them the common political axiom that Representatives are
elected to represent their constituents, and that it is not believed
at the seat of Government that a disloyal constituency would make such
a mistake as to send loyal Representatives to Congress. In short, you
may as well say to your people that, as Congress represents the
loyalty of the nation, South as well as North, and has much important
work on hand, some of it requiring a two-thirds