MR. PRESIDENT,--I hope the Senate will not take this step without
considering its importance. I do not mean to oppose it, but I would
ask attention to what I may call its gravity. I am not aware that a
petition has ever before been withdrawn on a motion like that now made.
A petition once presented comes into the possession of the Senate; it
passes into its files, and into the archives of the Capitol. We are
about to make a precedent for the first time. I do not say that the
occasion does not justify the precedent. I incline to agree with my
friend from Illinois. We owe protection, so far as we can afford it,
to these petitioners; and since the Senator from Illinois regards this
as the best way, I am disposed to follow him; but in doing it, I wish
the Senate to take notice of the character of the step, and of the
precedent they make.
But this is not all, Sir. I wish the Senate to take notice that they
are called to adopt this exceptional precedent by the lawless and
brutal condition of the social system about these petitioners. The
very fact which the Senator brings to the attention of the Senate, and
on account of which he invokes an unprecedented exercise of power,
is important evidence on the condition of things in one of these
Rebel States. It goes to show that they are not yet in any just sense
reconstructed, or prepared for reconstruction. Such an abnormal fact
could not occur in any other part of our broad country. That it occurs
here must be referred to remains of Rebellion not yet subdued, but
which you are now called upon, in the exercise of powers under the
National Constitution, to overcome and obliterate.
Therefore, Sir, I regard this transaction in a double light: first,
as an important precedent in the business of the Senate; secondly, as
illustrating a condition of things to justify every exercise of care
and diligence on our part, that it may not bring forth similar fruits
hereafter. The right of petition, a great popular right, cannot be
interrupted without a blow at the Constitution.