the military. It seems to me that the people
of the United States want and demand something more than a military
government for the South."

Several Senators thought Mr. Stewart was unnecessarily troubled about
military governments in the South. "Are we," asked Mr. Morrill, "who
have stood here for five long, bloody years, and witnessed the
exercise of military power over these rebel States, to be frightened
now by a declaration of that sort? That is not the temper in which I
find myself to-day. I have got so accustomed, if you please, to the
exercise of this authority----"

"That is the trouble," said Mr. Stewart.

"That has not been our trouble that we have exercised power," said Mr.
Morrill; "that has been the salvation of the nation. The trouble has
been from the hesitation to exercise authority when authority was
required."

Mr. Wilson thought that the wisest course would be to pass the bill
just as it came from the House. If it was to be amended at all, he
would propose an amendment that all citizens should "equally possess
the right to pursue all lawful avocations and receive the equal
benefits of the public schools."

"I think the amendments," said Mr. Howard, "entirely incompatible with
the scheme and provisions of the bill itself, and that gentlemen will
discover that incompatibility on looking into it."

Mr. Henderson thought that the remedy proposed by him long before
would be found the only cure for the ills of the nation. "I offered,"
said he, "twelve months ago, a proposition, as a constitutional
amendment, that was to give political rights to the negroes. Some
Senators said it was a humbug, that it was Jacob Townsend's
Sarsaparilla, or some thing to that effect, that it would amount to
nothing. Now, I will ask what other protection can you give to a Union
man in the Southern States than the ballot?"

Since the bill must be passed both Houses and go to the President by
the following Tuesday, in order to give Congress time to pass it over
his veto, Mr. Williams, who had the bill in charge, was desirous of
having it passed upon in the Senate on the evening of the day of this
discussion, February 15th. Several Senators protested against this as
unreasonable haste. "It is extraordinary," said Mr. Doolittle, "that a
bill of this kind, that proposes to establish a military despotism
over eight million people and a country larger than England, France,
and Spain combined, is to be pressed to a vote in th