It expresses the thanks of Congress for an act great in itself, and also great as an example.

Peabody for purposes of education in the South and Southwestern States, to be distributed among the whole population, without any distinction other than needs or opportunities of usefulness to them.

As it is much in itself, so I cannot but think it will be most fruitful as an example.

Individuals and communities will be moved to do more in the same direction, and impartial education may be added to recent triumphs.

I am not led to consider the difference between the widow’s mite and the rich man’s endowment, except to remark, that, when a charity is so large as to become historic, it is necessarily taken out of the category of common life.

Standing apart by itself, it challenges attention and fills the mind, receiving homage and gratitude.

I should be sorry to have it understood that the thanks of Congress can be won only in war.

A public benefactor is a conqueror in the perpetual conflict with evil.

But even if there were no precedent, then, do I say, make a precedent.

At this moment, when we are engaged in the work of Reconstruction, this endowment for education in the Southern and Southwestern States is most timely.

Education is the foundation-stone of that Republican Government we seek to establish.

PRESIDENT,--In voting on the proposition of the Senator from Maine, I ask myself one question: How would the Union men of the South vote, if they had the privilege?

We here ought to be the representatives of the unrepresented.

I cannot doubt, that, with one voice, they would vote No.

They would not trust their fortunes in any way to the existing governments of the Rebel States.

Those governments have been set up in spite of the Union men, and during their short-lived existence they have trampled upon Union men and upon their rights.

That region might be described as bleeding at every pore, and much through the action of the existing governments, owing their origin to the President.

I hear, then, the voice of every Union man from every one of the Rebel States coming up to this Chamber and entreating us to refuse all trust, all power, to these Legislatures.

To my mind, that proposition is founded in good sense, in prudence, in a just economy of political forces.

We have just come out from the fires of a terrible Rebellion, and our special purpose now is to set up safeguards against the recurrence of any such calamity, and also for the establishment of peace and tranquillity throughout that whole…

I would take the precaution to found government solidly, firmly, on a majority,--not merely a majority of those who vote, but a majority of all registered voters.

Then will the government be rooted and anchored in principle, so that it cannot be brushed aside.

I would have the new government planted firmly on a majority, so that it can never again be disturbed.

Does the Senator know that at this moment the special question which tries British reformers is the ballot?

I would reinforce the liberal cause, not only in my own country, but everywhere throughout the world; and that cause, I assure you, is staked in part on this very question.