ended. I feel, and I am rejoiced to find that members on the other side
of the House feel, that the great problem now before us is to restore
the Union to its old integrity, purified from everything that interfered
with the full development of the spirit of liberty which it was made
to enshrine. I trust that we shall have a general concurrence of the
members of this House and of this Congress in such measures as may be
deemed most fit and proper for the accomplishment of that result. I am
glad to assume and to believe that there is not a member of this House,
nor a man in this country, who does not wish, from the bottom of his
heart, to see the day speedily come when we shall have this nation--the
great American Republic--again united, more harmonious in its action
than it ever has been, and forever one and indivisible. We in this
Congress are to devise the means to restore its union and its harmony,
to perfect its institutions, and to make it in all its parts and in all
its action, through all time to come, too strong, too wise, and too
free ever to invite or ever to permit the hand of rebellion again to be
raised against it.

Now, sir, in devising those ways and means to accomplish that great
result, the first thing we have to do is to know the point from which
we start, to understand the nature of the material with which we have
to work--the condition of the territory and the States with which we are
concerned. I had supposed at the outset of this session that it was the
purpose of this House to proceed to that work without discussion, and
to commit it almost exclusively, if not entirely, to the joint committee
raised by the two Houses for the consideration of that subject. But,
sir, I must say that I was glad when I perceived the distinguished
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens), himself the chairman on the
part of this House of that great committee on reconstruction, lead off
in a discussion of this general subject, and thus invite all the rest of