The defect in both Amendments, in so far as their main object of securing rights to the colored race is involved, lies in the fact that they do not operate directly upon the people, and therefore Congress is not endowed with the pertinent…

By decisions of the Supreme Court, the Fourteenth Amendment has been deprived in part of the power which Congress no doubt intended to impart to it.

Those outrages are the deeds of individual citizens or of associated masses, acting without authority of law and in defiance of law.

Yet when a vitiated public opinion justifies their course, and when indictment and conviction are impossible, the injured citizen loses his rights as conclusively as if the law had denied them, and indeed far more cruelly.

Undoubtedly a large proportion of the members of Congress, while following the lead of those who constructed the Fourteenth Amendment, sincerely believed that it possessed a far greater scope than judicial inquiry and decision have left it.

The Constitutional Amendments were proposed and adopted under the belief that they would be honorably observed and enforced in all the States alike.

Without the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments the Thirteenth would have proved of little value to the oppressed race which it declared to be free.

There were thousands in their own ranks who did not wish the negro advanced to citizenship; there were tens of thousands who were unwilling to see him advanced to the elective franchise.

But happily there were hundreds of thousands who plainly saw that without the rights of citizenship his freedom could be maintained only in name, and that without the elective franchise his citizenship would have no legitimate and (if the…

They gave hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless, liberty to the downtrodden.

They did more: they elevated the character and enlightened the conscience of the oppressing race.

The struggle is not yet ended, the final battle is not yet fought; but complete victory sooner or later is assured.

The three great Amendments to the Constitution were bought with a great price--even the blood of the slain--and they will assuredly, in their letter and in their spirit, be vindicated and enforced.

Lincoln taught his countrymen the lesson that he who would be no slave must be content to have no slave.

It is yet to be learned with equal emphasis that he who would preserve his own right to suffrage must never aid in depriving another citizen of the same great boon.

In moral as in physical conflicts it may be easy to determine who strikes the first blow, but it is difficult to foresee who may strike the last.

The President had the right under the law to fill the office of Lieutenant-General by selection, and he was not bound even by usage to regard any claim based only upon seniority of commission.

How well he maintained his faith to his country is written in the history of great battles and great victories!

He possessed admirable traits for a legislator; being a conscientious worker, intelligent in the business of the House, and implicitly trusted by his fellow-members.

In all respects he was an admirable representative, watchfully caring for the public interests.

Though allied with the Democrats, he was not a bitter partisan, and his course in the House was that of an enlightened and liberal man.

In the House of Representatives he rose rapidly in the estimation of his associates and was recognized as a sound and careful legislator, of great industry in the committee-room, and of decided ability as a debater.

He exhibited an exceptional clearness of statement and power of analysis.

But he would not join in secession and turned from a supporter of slavery to be a radical Republican.

The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.