What, Sir, is a republican form of government?

It is a government founded on the people and the consent of the governed.

It cannot invoke in its behalf that great principle of the Declaration of Independence; therefore it is not republican in form.

And when you allege that it is republican in form, permit me to say, you make an allegation false in fact.

I do not raise any question of theory, but I submit that a constitution which on its face disfranchises more than one fourth of the citizens cannot be republican in form.

You, Sir, will make a terrible mistake, if at this moment of your history you undertake to recognize it as such.

You will inflict a blow upon republican institutions.

Do not compel us to aver what history will look at with scorn.

Who can doubt, when this war is considered gravely and calmly in the tranquillity of the future, that the historian must bring all these events to the rigid test of principle?

Bringing them to such test, it will be impossible to recognize any government like that of Tennessee either as republican in form or in harmony with the National Constitution.

I hope he will be radical now,--in other words, that he will be thorough in his remedy for the present case.

To my mind, this is not enough; the walls by which we are shut in must be destroyed.

Let this chamber be brought to the open air and the light of day, and Nature will do the rest.

I would have all this massive masonry about us taken down, and the chamber brought to the windows.

This Capitol, as we all see, is built for immortality.

Its disadvantages will not be less permanent than its advantages, unless we apply ourselves resolutely to their revision.

Without legislation and positive effort on our part, this chamber will continue uncomfortable for generations and long centuries.

Senators after us, in thickening ranks, will sit here as uncomfortable as ourselves.

If not for ourselves, then for those who come after us, we should initiate a change.

A chamber of one half the size would answer every purpose of business, and not fail essentially even on occasions of display.

Senators are treated as the gladiators of the ancient amphitheatre, not to make “a Roman holiday,” but a Washington show.

But such surrounding multitudes are plainly inconsistent with the quiet transaction of business and the simple tone which belongs to legislation.

Now I cannot doubt that the chamber should be so reduced that a motion or question or remark in a common tone of voice would be easily heard by every Senator.

Looking at these enormous spaces, adapted to the eye rather than to the ear, I turn with envy to that other chamber where the Senate sat so many honorable years, and listened to speeches which now belong to the permanent literature of the…

For the transaction of daily business it was infinitely superior; and even on rare occasions, when the republic hung upon the voice of the orator, there were witnesses enough.