They must not enter the Halls they treasonably deserted, until we have every reasonable assurance of future good conduct.

I am against letting the monster in, until he is no longer terrible in mouth or paw.

But, while holding this ground of prudence, I desire to disclaim every sentiment of vengeance or punishment, and also every thought of delay or procrastination.

And I object to the interference of the President, because, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he interposes delay and keeps the chasm open.

More than all others, the President, by officious assumptions, has lengthened the way and lengthened the time.

Had the National Government taken advantage of this plastic condition, it might have stamped Equal Rights upon the whole people, as upon molten wax, while it fixed the immutable conditions of permanent peace.

The question of Reconstruction would have been settled before it arose.

Perhaps in all history there is no instance of such an opportunity lost.

Truly should our country say in penitential supplication, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

I believe the mass of the people could have been easily controlled, if none of the excepted classes had received pardon.

At the surrender, the South could have been moulded at will; but it is now as stiff-necked and rebellious as ever.

There is one thing, however, that is making against the speedy return of quietness, not only in this State, but throughout the entire South, and that is the Reconstruction policy of President Johnson.

It is doing more to unsettle this country than people who are not practical observers of its workings have any idea of.

Rebels have again become arrogant and exacting; Treason stalks through the land unabashed.

When, therefore, the President, in opprobrious terms, complains of Congress as interposing delay, I reply to him: “No, Sir, it is you, who, by unexpected and most perverse assumption, have put off the glad day of security and…

It is you who have inaugurated anew that malignant sectionalism, which, so long as it exists, will keep the Union divided in fact, if not in name.

I had always supposed that the President was the Executive,--bound to see the laws faithfully executed, but not empowered to make laws.

The Constitution expressly says: “The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” But the Legislative power is elsewhere.

According to the Constitution, “All Legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” And yet the President has assumed legislative power…

You all know, that, at the close of the war, when the Rebel States were without lawful governments, he assumed to supply them.

In this business of Reconstruction he assumed to determine who should vote, and also to affix conditions for adoption by the conventions.

The President, from the Executive Mansion at Washington, reaches his long executive arm into certain States and dictates constitutions.

Surely here is nothing executive; it is not even military.

It is an attempt by the One Man Power to do what can be done only by the legislative branch of Government.

And yet the President, perversely absorbing to himself all power over the reconstruction of the Rebel States, insists that Congress must accept his work without addition or subtraction.