class that is peculiarly guarded and taken care of
here, then they are to be punished."

Referring to the speech of the Senator from New Hampshire, Mr.
Hendricks asked: "Had the white men of this country a right to
establish a Government, and thereby a political community? If so, they
had a right to say who should be members of that political community.
They had a right to exclude the colored man if they saw fit. Sir, I
say, in the language of the lamented Douglas, and in the language of
President Johnson, this is the white man's Government, made by the
white man for the white man. I am not ashamed to stand behind such
distinguished men in maintaining a sentiment like that. Nor was my
judgment on the subject changed the day before yesterday by the
lamentations of the Senator from New Hampshire, [Mr. Clark,] sounding
through this body like the wailing of the winds in the dark forest,
'that it is a horrible thing for a man to say that this is a white
man's Government.'

"Mr. President, there is a great deal said about the part the colored
soldiers have taken in putting down this rebellion--a great deal more
than there is any occasion for, or there is any support for in fact or
history. This rebellion was put down by the white soldiers of this
country."

Criticising sentiments toward the South, expressed by Senators, Mr.
Hendricks said: "We hear a good deal said about blood now. Yesterday
the Senator from Oregon [Mr. Williams] criticised the President for
his leniency toward the South. A few days ago, the Senator from Ohio
[Mr. Wade] made a severe criticism on the President for his leniency,
and my colleague asks for blood. Mr. President, this war commenced
with blood; nay, blood was demanded before the war. When the good men
and the patriotic, North and South, representing the yearning hearts
of the people at home, came here, in the winter and spring of 1861, in
a peace congress, if possible to avoid this dreadful war, right then
the Senator from Michigan [Mr. Chandler] announced to his Governor and
the country that this Union was scarcely worth preserving without some
blood-letting. His cry before the war was for blood. Allow me to say
that when the Senator's name is forgotten because of any thing he says
or does in this body, in future time it will be borne down upon the
pages of history as the author of the terrible sentiment that the
Union of the people that our fathers had cemented by the blood of the
Revolution