John Sherman

A few days after this election--on the 17th of October--the invasion of the State of Virginia by John Brown startled the country, and, more than all other causes, aroused the southern people to a state of great excitement, amounting to…

This debate made it clear that the struggle between free and slave institutions was to be continued and to become the controlling issue of the future.

Our policy of respect and toleration for all religious sects, but taxes for none, is a better one.

We have enough possible points of controversy on this continent with Great Britain, without importing from that country old controversies that have been the occasion of wars and rumors of war for centuries.

We have more people of Irish descent in the United States than now live in Ireland, and they have done their full part in our development, not only as laborers, but in all the walks and professions of life.

Every street and many houses in it recalled the names of persons whose writings I had read, and of others whose deeds made them immortal.

This great city impressed me more by the association of great men and women who had lived and died in it than by the grandeur of its buildings and public works.

The purpose of Walker was to seize Nicaragua, adopt slavery and convert the Central American states into slaveholding communities, and thus strengthen slavery in the United States.

I have an abiding hope that the next House of Representatives will do what this should have done, and become, like its great prototype, the guardian of the rights and liberties of the people.

We can only look now to the virtue and intelligence of the people, whose potent will can overthrow Presidents, Senators, and majorities.

It is only by a firm, able, and determined opposition-- not yielding to every friendly request, not yielding to every urgent demand, not yielding to every appeal--that we can expect to reform the abuse in the administration of the…

We know that with a party House, a House a majority of whose Members are friends of the President, it is impossible to bring about a reform.

I believe that the House of Representatives should be in opposition to the President.

But, sir, I have no hope, while this House is constituted as it is now, of instituting any radical reform.

It was generally agreed that the views expressed by me on the 27th of May were sound in principle, but the strong partisan feeling that ran through the speech weakened its effect.

Another abuse by the executive departments was the habit of making contracts in advance of appropriations, thus, without law, compelling Congress to sanction them or violate the public faith.

I pointed out cases where the departments assumed the power to transfer appropriations made for one purpose, to other purposes in the same department.

It is the duty of the executive to use that sum, and no more, especially for that purpose, and no other, and within the time fixed.

I said: "The theory of our government is, that a specific sum shall be appropriated by a law originating in this House, for a specific purpose, and within a given fiscal year.

I cited the abuses and usurpations of the executive departments in diverting specific appropriations to purposes not authorized by law.

No provision is made for their payment; no measure of retrenchment and reform; but these accumulated difficulties are thrust upon the future, with the improvidence of a young spendthrift.

And yet, sir, for this alarming condition of the public finances, the administration has no measures of relief except loan bills and paper money in the form of treasury notes.

I have given much space to this Kansas controversy, for I wish to impress upon the readers of this volume that the war was not caused by agitation for the abolition of slavery, but by aggressive measures for the extension of slavery over…

This memorable result was the turning point of the slavery controversy.

Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia or South Carolina.