tecting the negroes, upon this question of suffrage
--upon all these questions that have arisen in our politics of
late, the differences between Andrew Johnson and Congress are not
such as need excite the alarm of any patriotic citizen. No, my
friends, we have a great duty to perform to our country. Every
man in public life now has a heavy responsibility resting upon him,
in the discharge of which he is bound to follow the dictates of
his own conscience, given to him by Almighty God. There are, there
must be, differences of opinion; God has so made us that we must
differ; it is the established nature of the human mind to disagree.
It is only by discussion and comparison of views that the highest
human wisdom is elicited. Therefore, I say again, that no Union
man need feel anxious or uneasy because of the differences between
the President and Congress. Let me tell you, as the solemn conviction
with which I address you to-night, that Andrew Johnson never will
throw the power we have given him into the hands of the Copperhead
party of the United States.

"I have many reasons for this faith. One is that no nomination
has ever been sent by Andrew Johnson to the Senate of the United
States of any man of that stripe of politics. No flattery, no
cajolery can draw him from that line. He is a man who fights his
own battles, and whether they are old friends or foes that assail
him he fights them with equal freedom and boldness, and sometimes,
perhaps indiscreetly; but that is a fault of his character, which
need excite no uneasiness in the minds of the people.

"On Thursday, the day that I left Washington, we sent to him a bill
which secures to all the colored population of the southern states
equal rights before the law, the civil rights bill. It declares
that no state shall exclude any man on account of his color from
any of the natural rights which, by the Declaration of Independence,
are declared to be inalienable; it provides that every man may sue
and be sued, may plead and be impleaded, may acquire and hold
property, may purchase, contract, sell and convey; all those rights
are secured to the negro population. That bill is now in the hands
of the President. If he sign it, it will be a solemn pledge of
the law-making power of the nation that the negroes shall have
secured to them all these natural and inalienable rights. I believe
the President will sign it."

Unfortunately at the end of ten days the Presiden