inquired whether there was any limit to the right
to make these requisitions, except the good judgment of Congress, Mr.
Raymond answered:

"My impression is that these requisitions are made as a part of the
terms of surrender which we have a right to demand at the hands of the
defeated insurgents, and that it belongs, therefore, to the President,
as Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, to
make them, and to fix the limit, as to what they shall embrace."

By way of setting forth the opinions of the "Radicals" in as strong a
light as possible, Mr. Raymond said: "It may be for the welfare of
this nation that we shall cherish toward the millions of our people
lately in rebellion feelings of hatred and distrust; that we shall
nurse the bitterness their infamous treason has naturally and justly
engendered, and make that the basis of our future dealings with them.
Possibly we may best teach them the lessons of liberty, by visiting
upon them the worst excesses of despotism. Possibly they may best
learn to practice justice toward others, to admire and emulate our
republican institutions, by suffering at our hands the absolute rule
we denounce in others. It may be best for us and for them that we
discard, in all our dealings with them, all the obligations and
requirements of the Constitution, and assert as the only law for them
the unrestrained will of conquerors and masters."

In contrast with this, he placed what he supposed to be a different
policy: "I would exact from them, or impose upon them through the
constitutional legislation of Congress, and by enlarging and
extending, if necessary, the scope and powers of the Freedmen's
Bureau, proper care and protection for the helpless and friendless
freedmen, so lately their slaves. I would exercise a rigid scrutiny
into the character and loyalty of the men whom they may send to
Congress, before I allowed them to participate in the high prerogative
of legislating for the nation. But I would seek to allay rather than
stimulate the animosities and hatred, however just they may be, to
which the war has given rise. But for our own sake as well as for
theirs, I would not visit upon them a policy of confiscation which has
been discarded in the policy and practical conduct of every civilized
nation on the face of the globe."

Mr. Raymond having closed his speech, it was moved that the Committee
of the Whole should rise, but the motion was withdrawn to allow Mr.