Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Geo, H. Yeaman, of Kentucky: On the President's Proclamation, Delivered in the House of Representatives, December 18th, 1862
Mr. Chairman: I have not sought to obtain the floor out of any factious opposition to the Administration. Neither will I offend its friends by that fierce advocacy of a system of pro-slavery propagandism which has done nearly as much harm on this floor and in the country as the policy, or rather the hobby, of abolition. My highest ambition is to appear here to-day as the champion of my country, and of my country's Constitution, which is at once the charter and the bulwark of my country's liberties.
Neither do I intend to consume the time of the House in making a speech against the rebellion. I have been speaking against it for two years in a country where it has had many able defenders on the stump, and now has many brave defenders in the field. The rebellion does not need to be argued with so much as it needs to be struck - to be struck such blows by our armies as have not yet been dealt to it. The principal promises I made to those who sent me here were, that I would accept no solution of our difficulties other than the unity of the Republic and the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States; that I was in favor of putting forth the whole constitutional power of the Government to effect this; that I would vote all the men and all the money needed for that purpose; and that I would support this Administration, and the President at the head of it, against whom we all voted, if he would support the Constitution, and wage an earnest and decent war, inside the pale of the Constitution and the laws of nations and of humanity, to vindicate the majesty of the laws. I sit here day by day prepared to redeem these pledges.
But there are some things in the land that need to be spoken against; my constituents expect it of me; and by being spoken against now by those who are known to be the friends of the Government, it may save to our children, possibly to ourselves the trouble of fighting against them hereafter. Well might we dispense with our whole budget of political resolves, and for-them substitute the nervous words of the alarm bell of another assembly in other times, "the republic is in danger." Those to whom we have committed the keeping of our destinies will excuse me if I say they have laid themselves obnoxious to the charge hurled by Cicero against Pompey, when he complained that the decree of the Roman Senate - "let the consuls see that no detriment comes to the republic" - had not been obeyed.
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