The father received his son with parental affection, and forgave him; but he did not invite the criminal to resume his former desk in Wall Street.

The state of outlawry is the present condition of each, and this condition must not be hastily relaxed.

This exclusion, thus sanctioned by Congress, must be the pole-star of our national policy.

If Rebels cannot be officers under our Government, they ought not to be voters.

They should be politically disfranchised, purely and simply as a measure of necessary precaution, and in order to prepare the way for those guaranties which we seek.

Vipers cannot use their venom in the cold.” These are words of political wisdom, as of scientific truth; and a great Italian writer did not hesitate to inculcate from them the same lesson that I do now.

Surely, recent Rebels, who led in secession, and held office under the Rebellion, are poor professors to rally these communities to the support of the national freedman and the national creditor, and generally to the establishment of the…

Reason and experience warn us to postpone trust in such persons.

But character is not changed in a day; and that “Southern heart,” which was “fired” against the Union, still preserves its vindictive violence.

And so a Rebel, transformed by political necromancy into a loyalist, will suddenly start in full cry to run down a national freedman or national creditor.

Horace tells us, “Drive it out with a pitchfork, and it will return.” Therefore do I insist, put not political trust in the man who has been engaged in warring upon his country.

I am for a velvet glove; but for a while I wish the hand of iron.

I confess that I have little sympathy with those hypocrites of magnanimity whose appeal for the Rebel master is only a barbarous indifference towards the slave; and yet they cannot more than I desire the day of reconciliation.

To this end I am with them, so far as is consistent with safety; but I cannot see my country sacrificed to a false idea.

Thou may’st hold a serpent by the tongue, A chafèd lion by the mortal paw, A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.

In obtaining guaranties we must rely upon acts rather than professions, and light our footsteps by “the lamp of experience.” Therefore we turn from recent rebels to constant loyalists.

As those who fought against us should be for the present disfranchised, so those who fought for us should be at once enfranchised, and thus a renovated state will be built secure on an unfaltering and natural loyalty.

Surely nobody can doubt that Robert Small, the heroic slave who carried a Rebel steamer to our fleet and then became our pilot, deserves more of the Republic than a South Carolina official occupied at that very time as commissioner to…

To accept the latter and to reject the former will be not only the height of injustice, but the height of meanness.

Here is a sacred obligation which cannot be postponed.

All these guaranties should be completed and crowned by an Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, especially providing that hereafter there shall be no denial of the electoral franchise or any exclusion of any kind on account…

Any other interpretation recognizes the Rebellion, and plays into its hands, by conceding its power, through rebellious contrivance, to prevent an Amendment of the Constitution essential to the general welfare.

It may advance at once the cause of Universal Civilization, or quicken anew the Satanic energies of a fearful barbarism.

It may give assurance of security and reconciliation for the future, or it may scatter uncertainty and distrust, while it postpones that Truce of God which is the longing of our hearts.

As your power is vast, so is your responsibility.