el States, and closed by saying: "I
bring this plain story to a close. I regret that I have been
constrained to present it. I wish it were otherwise. But I should have
failed in duty had I failed to speak. Not in anger, not in vengeance,
not in harshness have I spoken; but solemnly, carefully, and for the
sake of my country and humanity, that peace and reconciliation may
again prevail. I have spoken especially for the loyal citizens who are
now trodden down by rebel power. You have before you the actual
condition of the rebel States. You have heard the terrible testimony.
The blood curdles at the thought of such enormities, and especially at
the thought that the poor freedmen, to whom we owe protection, are
left to the unrestrained will of such a people smarting with defeat,
and ready to wreak vengeance upon these representatives of a true
loyalty. In the name of God let us protect them. Insist upon
guarantees. Pass the bill now under consideration; pass any bill; but
do not let this crying injustice rage any longer. An avenging God can
not sleep while such things find countenance. If you are not ready to
be the Moses of an oppressed people, do not become its Pharaoh."

Mr. Cowan rebuked the Senator from Massachusetts for applying the term
"whitewash" to the message of the President. He then charged Mr.
Sumner with reading from "anonymous letter-writers, from cotton
agents, and people of that kind," and placed against them "the
testimony of the President of the United States, not a summer soldier,
or a sunshine patriot, who was a Union man, and who was in favor of
the Union at a time and in a place when there was some merit in it."
He then proceeded to read extracts from the President's message and
General Grant's report.

On a subsequent day, Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, made a speech in
opposition to the positions assumed by Mr. Sumner. He declared his
opinion that "if the great mass of the people of the South are capable
of the atrocities attributed to them by the anonymous witnesses
paraded before this Senate, then a union of these States is
impossible; then hundreds and thousands of the bravest and best of our
land have fallen to no purpose; then every house, from the gulf to the
lakes, is draped in mourning without an object; then three thousand
millions of indebtedness hangs like a pall upon the pride and
prosperity of the people, only to admonish us that the war was wicked,
useless, and cruel."

After making the