right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are
in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations.




HENRY WINTER DAVIS,

OF MARYLAND. (BORN 1817, DIED 1865.)

ON RECONSTRUCTION; THE FIRST REPUBLICAN THEORY;

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 22, 1864.


MR. SPEAKER:

The bill which I am directed by the committee on the rebellious States
to report is one which provides for the restoration of civil government
in States whose governments have been overthrown. It prescribes such
conditions as will secure not only civil government to the people of
the rebellious States, but will also secure to the people of the United
States permanent peace after the suppression of the rebellion. The bill
challenges the support of all who consider slavery the cause of the
rebellion, and that in it the embers of rebellion will always smoulder;
of those who think that freedom and permanent peace are inseparable, and
who are determined, so far as their constitutional authority will