ect the Government against
the enemy.

"I approve of the proposition which disfranchises the enemies of the
country. I think it right in principle. I think it necessary at this
time. If I had any opinion to express, I should say to the gentlemen
of the House that it is impossible to organize a government in the
insurgent States, and have the enemies of the country in possession of
political power, in whole or in part, in local governments or in
representation here.

"An enemy to the Government, a man who avows himself an enemy of its
policy and measures, who has made war against the Government, would
not seem to have any absolute right to share political power equally
with other men who have never been otherwise than friends of the
Government.

"A pardon does not confer or restore political power. A general act of
amnesty differs from an individual pardon only in the fact that it
applies to a class of offenders who can not be individually described.
It secures immunity from punishment or prosecution by obliterating all
remembrance of the offense; but it confers or restores no one to
political power.

"There is no justification for the opinion so strongly expressed, that
this measure will fail because the rebel States will not consent to
the disfranchisement of any portion of their own people. The
proposition is for the loyal States to determine upon what terms they
will restore to the Union the insurgent States. It is not necessary
that they should participate in our deliberations upon this subject,
and wholly without reason that they should have the power to defeat
it. It is a matter of congratulation that they have not this power. We
have the requisite number of States without them.

"I do not believe that there is a State in this Union where at least a
clear majority of the people were not from the beginning opposed to
the war; and could you remove from the control of public opinion one
or two thousand in each of these States, so as to let up from the
foundations of political society the mass of common people, you would
have a population in all these States as loyal and true to the
Government as the people of any portion of the East or West.

"The people knew that it was the rich man's war and the poor man's
fight. The legislation of the insurgent States exempted, to a great
degree, the rich men and their sons, on account of the possession of
property, while it forced, at the point of the bayonet, and oftenti