Yes, it was in Virginia, that State so conspicuous, illustrious, and glorious in revolutionary history, and in whose bosom rested the sacred remains of Henry, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, and Washington, that the constituted authorities, the leading men and the people-unmindful of the blood of their fathers, forgetful of their duty to their country, careless of the just rights of posterity, and regardless of the claims of universal humanity-struck at the vitals of the Republic, united in resistance to the Federal Constitution, and turned over their State government to the embraces of an enemy. The President seems to have carefully surveyed and accurately comprehended the actual condition of affairs, and to have arrived at the conclusion that Virginia by her own act and volition had extinguished her government. Hence he did not propose to revive, sustain, or protect it. But he announced in emphatic language the fixed determination of this Government to protect the "loyal citizens." So much, at least, was due to the memory of the Virginia of better and purer days. Nor could he do otherwise; these loyal men are entitled by the organic law to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States. Congress sympathized and concurred with the views of the President, and cheerfully united in the attempt to give them effect. But how? Not by sustaining the old government, but by recognizing Pierpont instead of Letcher, and the newly created authorities at Wheeling instead of those at Richmond. It was, in fact and in law, the erection of a new government. To deny this would be an admission that Virginia has at one and the same time two distinct, antagonistic State governments, which would be inconsistent and absurd. If the original State government was not in point of law extinguished, then there is no government at Wheeling, and the State is not properly represented in Congress. Let us not be deceived nor confounded by names. Virginia is one of the States of the Union, but not the Virginia of olden times. Observe that I speak not of the land, the rivers, the mountains, the territory; I refer to the government, the corporate organization that signifies, in our political language, the State. She ceased to be a member of the Union-not territorially, but as a State. In other words, by her own acts she lost her political organization. How did she get back and become reinstated on an equal footing with the loyal members? Sir, she came in no way and by no means whatever-she never came at all. But the present, the young Virginia, the heir, if you please, of the Old Dominion, came through a government de novo, springing from the people, inchoate and provisional at first, but made regular and complete by the recognition of the Federal Government. She followed in the same path that had been previously opened and beaten by California. The acts of recognition in the two cases differed somewhat in form, but not in results. I shall not now consider whether the admission of those States into the Union was regular or not; perhaps both might have been rejected; perhaps it is well that each was admitted. My present purpose is to show that both the executive and legislative branches of the Government have admitted and asserted by their own acts that the original government of Vir ginia passed away; that the Constitution of the United States is supreme over its possessions; and under it the Federal Government may erect or permit the erection of needful governments to insure domestic tranquillity, and promote the general welfare. Fully impressed with the conviction that Congress has power, with the approval of the Executive, to provide governments for those ill-fated, rebellious districts, I come now to consider the expediency and necessity of its exercise, and the character of the polity proper to be adopted. And here I repeat, in substance, a suggestion made in the early part of these remarks: the subject is practical and important, besetting us at every point, and earnestly demanding our serious, profound, and vigilant attention. I doubt, sir, that any question fraught with more important consequences ever occupied the minds of the American people. And, in proportion to the progress of our arms, and our military successes, the necessity for prompt action and wise determination and decision becomes at every stage the more pressing. More than seven hundred thousand square miles of our country are under the rule of traitors; and in that vast territory millions of people are engaged in the work of treason. gaged in the work of treason. In all that extensive region local laws have been abrogated, and Federal jurisprudence has been suspended. Justice has been stricken down, and domestic tranquillity has been disturbed. In their place, we find injustice, disorder, theft, robbery, rapine, murder, and every species of wickedness, everywhere prevalent. After many months of doubts and delays, the armies of the Republic have begun to move, and already glorious and important victories have been inscribed upon our banners. The avenue to the heart of treason is now apparently direct and open. Illegal, self-constituted authority must soon begin to crumble. Speedily the Davises, the Benjamins, and Cobbs will be stripped of their illgotten power, and the people will be deprived of even the poor, wretched local government hitherto maintained by rebels and traitors. Then, indeed, will the laws of the United States attempt to resume their sway; but putting aside the obstacles in the way of their execution, they are not adequate to the emergency. Local laws and local officers will be found absolutely indispensable to the restoration and maintenance of order and the welfare of the people. Local laws and municipal officers are found essential to the good government of the small District of Columbia. The usual Federal officers, the marshals with their deputies, the United States judges, the postmasters, revenue officers, &c., all these will avail little in the attempt to control seven millions of people, contaminated with treason, tainted with the vices of anarchy, embittered with jealousy, and smarting and writhing under the pain of recent humiliation and defeat. He, it seems me, knows little of the human heart, and studies but carelessly the philosophy of human action, who believes that millions of traitors can be prudently left without government, or that they can be controlled with decency and order by the usual Federal officers. Local government, with executive, legislative, and judicial powers, will be positively indispensable, not only for the welfare of the inhabitants, but for the preservation of the authority of the United States. Futile will be your effort to collect taxes, || magnitude of the scheme of treason, the number vain will be your hope to distribute justice between individuals, and fruitless will prove your labors to insure domestic tranquillity, without the establishment of local governments. I know that the Army as it moves along, may leave in its track military governors and martial regulations, and that such a course, under special circumstances, may become a necessity; but I cannot believe that any man, born under the American flag, who has given the subject the slightest || thought, can for a single moment entertain the design of establishing military governments, for any considerable duration, over seven millions of native-born Americans. Such a scheme is incompatible with the spirit of our institutions. It is anti-republican, anti-American. Better far to disband your armies, stop the waste of treasure, and stay the flow of blood; better far to let hostilities cease, and acknowledge the independence of Davis and his myrmidons and cohorts of banditti, than to attempt an experiment like this. Military power must be subject to, directed and controlled by, the civil authorities. This principle was deeply impressed upon the minds of our fathers, and when it shall have been forgotten by their descendants the days of constitutional liberty will have been numbered. || The fall of Sumter startled the Government and amazed and astounded the people. The tocsin sent forth its notes of alarm from the Executive Mansion, notes that were speedily borne upon the southern gales over every hill and valley in the North. They fell upon quick, watchful, and patriotic ears. The country responded beyond the requisitions of the Government. Men with white locks and boys with beardless faces, and even women with gentle forms, but stout and patriotic || hearts, rushed to the defense of the Constitution and the flag of their fathers. No one then doubted, no one now questions the ability of our loyal forces to crush out this rebellion against lawful Government and humanity itself. But often has the question arisen-and now the inquiry is more urgent than before-" when armed rebellion is beaten down, what disposition shall be made of the traitors?" The answer to this embarrassing question has thus far been delayed; but it cannot with safety be much longer postponed. That brave old flag, that has been borne in triumph in foreign lands, and that never was soiled but by the hands of traitors, will soon float again over every part of the Republic. And we are admonished of our duty to see that proper legislative provisions are made to secure and preserve the fruits of military triumphs. Sir, I do not deny, as a legal proposition, that the people of the seceded districts may erect provisional governments, elect members of Congress, and in that mode, by the consent of this Government, acquire a standing in the Union. So did California, so did Virginia. But in my judgment such a course cannot be tolerated without imminent peril. I regard the proposition as one of monstrous folly and madness; and should this Government suffer it to be carried out, I believe it would be faithless to the great trust that the people have given it in charge. If you regard this rebellion with reference to the age in which we live, the cause of defection, the || and character of the conspirators, the secrecy, yet The cause of all this long catalogue of evils is crime-deep, dark, damnable crime-resting on the souls of traitors. The crimes of the murderer executed upon the scaffold, of the homicide, the burglar, and the thief confined in your penitentiary, are venial, compared with the atrocious offenses of these wicked rebels. The former are wrongs against individuals, the latter are crimes against humanity itself. The authors of these atrocities are within our jurisdiction, and must be taken care of. They are too numerous for the gallows, too many for close confinement. They must have government; but in what manner shall it be provided? Would you deem it safe to trust such men to reorganize society and reconstruct government, the very corner-stone of which would Inevitably be treason? Would you allow such a constituency to send Representatives to this temple of liberty, to fill this Hall with the pestilential odors of treachery and rebellion? Is it thus that you would honor the grave of Ellsworth, of Lyon, and of Baker? Is it thus that you would reward the loyal North for its vast expense of treasure and of blood? Is this the kind of consolation you would offer to the lone widow, whose only son found his final resting-place at Manassas or Ball's Bluff, far away from the tomb of his ancestors, and the wonted scenes of his childhood and youth? Do you propose, without probation, to reinstate these guilty men with all the privileges and immunities of freemen and good citizens? Is there to be no punishment for traitors? Is commerce to be prostrated, trade annihilated, the wealthy beggared, the nation bankrupted and brought to the very verge of dissolution, by treason and groundless civil war, and is there no punishment for the authors of such terrible and wide-spread calami 7 ties? Sir, before you attempt this experiment, let hostile confederacy; they could not sustain and me advise you to accompany the tax-gatherer on preserve their Government; they cannot protect his tour of collection, to visit the military hospi- themselves; they are in a minority in most of the tals overflowing with the sick and the dying, to districts, a very inconsiderable minority; and if the stand over the amputation table and listen to the people generally are left to provide their own govirrepressible groans of anguish, to search out the ernment it is obvious that the result must be the widows and orphans and witness their poverty progeny of traitors; and, without the aid of Govand sorrow, and wherever you go to proclaim that ernment, established and controlled by Federal there is no punishment for treason, but that dis- authority, and officered by loyal and responsible armed traitors are good citizens, capable of self-men, such a result can hardly be avoided. government and worthy to sit in the councils of the nation! Nor can you escape the threatened danger by any general legislation by Congress that stops Sir, the very suggestion of such a proposition short of the actual establishment and officering of fills me with consternation and amazement. It Government. You may by statute declare the outseems to me to be fraught with danger and ulti-lawry and disqualification of rebels; but practimate disaster. Nor can I see the necessity, the cally that will avail you nothing. Law that canjustice, or the policy of such a measure. What not be executed is as no law; and it is only through plausible argument can be advanced in its sup- the instrumentality of territorial or provisional port? Are you afraid of humiliating or exasper- governments, established by Congress, that you ating these men? Afraid of humiliating traitors! can discriminate and ferret out the culpable. If left Afraid of exasperating thieves, rebels, and mur- to themselves, the people will meet in primary conderers, already holding daggers in their hands, ventions; and as four fifths of them, more or less, pointed at your throats! Are you afraid of dis- are disaffected, it inevitably follows that traitors couraging and disbanding your armies if you at- must reconstruct the Government and reorganize tempt to control or punish their enemies? Are society; and the entire polity of the State must be you moved by a spirit of love and friendship for || tainted with the virus of treason. The State offithese desperadoes? Surely your love is more than cers and the members of Congress must of course sufficient for a reasonable compliance with the be representative men. The majority are not apt requisitions of the Christian faith. David, with all to select their rulers from the minority. Recent his deep affection for Jonathan, had no conception chastisement may induce a policy of dissimulation, of the height, depth, and breadth of love. It was and a show of repentance and obedience. But who not permitted to the "sweet singer of Israel" to of experience, of enlarged statesmanship, can be comprehend its intensity. It was reserved to the deceived by such specious pretenses? The same American Congress of the nineteenth century to reasoning would, with an equal appearance of wisdemonstrate the virtue of loving not their neigh- dom, open the prison doors of every jail and penbors as themselves, but their enemies even more itentiary on the face of the earth. The convicted than themselves! horse thief deplores his offense, not on account of its criminality, but because of his detection. Perhaps there may be some localities in which the loyal people if once released from the chains of despotism by which they are now so rigorously and tightly bound, would be competent to provide for their own security; but such cases are merely exceptive; and on principle and as a general rule, the Federal authority should intervene, not to disfranchise loyal men, but to establish and regulate government, because of their inability to govern themselves. Besides, let it be determined and declared to the world that the people of a State cannot throw the country into civil war, abolish their Government, and reconstruct it at pleasure. It is said that many loyal citizens still reside in the seceded districts whose hearts continue to throb with affection for the Government of their fathers. I do not deny the fact, and yet the assumption must rest on assertion and belief, rather than on proof. The evidence is against it, particularly in the cotton States. The hasty and apparently spontaneous action of the masses, the obvious unanimity with which the people flew to arms, and the relentless hate which has marked their conduct, do not indicate a high degree of patriotism in the infected territory. Nevertheless, conceding, as I do, the existence of loyal men, I admit and insist that they must be shielded and protected by and under the Constitution. So much they may de- I have remarked that the case is without precemand on the plainest principles of right, justice, dent; let it, therefore, be well considered, and deand humanity. But the very necessities of their cided with an eye to the future. Let it be demoncondition furnish the strongest arguments in sup-strated that the jurisdiction of the Government port of the policy that I advocate. They could not maintain order and the supremacy of the laws; they could not keep down insurrection in their own State; they could not prevent it from joining a extends over every part of the Republic; and let it be established and remembered during all coming time, that treason is crime susceptible as well as worthy of punishment. Printed at the office of the Congressional Globe. SPEECH OF CHARLES D. DRAKE DELIVERED IN Turners' Hall, St. Louis, January 28, 1863, FELLOW-CITIZENS: Never has it been my duty to address a popular assemblage, under circumstances more solemn and momentous than those in which the American people are now placed. Were I to give way to expressions of mere personal feelings, it would be difficult to define the mingled emotions with which I have accepted the invitation to appear before you on this occasion. But I have endeavored to put aside all feeling, save that which yearns toward my beloved and suffering country, and every purpose but that which binds me, in life or in death, to her welfare and honor. I am no politician; I belong to no party; I have nothing to ask for myself at the hands of the people, but to be recognized as one ready to do anything in that holy cause, and to be anything that is farthest removed from a traitor, [applause] whether such as skulk from our soil, southward, to help slay their patriot brothers, or such as hang back under the folds of the old Flag, that they may, while enjoying its protection, more surely aid in betraying and dishonoring it. Between such and me, I thank God! there is not, nor ever can be, any more concord than between fire and water; but discord, antagonism, and strife, now and evermore, until the venom of treason shall cease to poison their hearts, and to fire their brain with parricidal madness. [Applause.] Indulge me, however, in a single remark as to my past position with reference to the subject which rises in this hour above every other-the institution of SLAVERY. I desire to preface the words which I deem it my duty to utter here, with the reiterated declaration, that I am not, | nor ever have been, a fanatic against Slavery as a domestic institution, nor have I ever been connected for an hour with any party or association, which struck at Slavery in that character. Ι have always, however, believed Slavery a sore evil and a vast misfortune to our country, Lapplause] and was ready to hail its removal by proper means, as one of the greatest blessings which a kind Providence could vouchsafe us. [Great applause.] When, therefore, I speak as I shall to-night of Slavery, let no let no man say that I give utterance to any other than the opinions and convictions, which the horrid scenes of the last two years have fairly burned into my mind and heart, against the preconceptions of nearly thirty years. When I strike at Slavery, it is because Slavery strikes at my country; and for that I would STRIKE IT DOWN! [Immense and prolonged applause.] During those two years, we have witnessed the bloody climax of a conspiracy, begun in the preceding generation, to enthrone Slavery as a political power in this land, and to extend its sway over adjacent countries, in the wild hope that, in the grasp and under the lead of the indomitable Anglo-Saxon race, it might become-what it had failed to become in any other hands-a Power in the earth. It is too late in the day for the arch-traitor, Jefferson Davis, to delude the world with such lying words as those quoted in one of the resolutions reported by your committee, affirming that he and his armies "are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement." Does he comprehend the import |