perheads, " vipers that creep where man dis-
dains to climb." I announced, and repeat it,
that those papers having, at the outset of
this war, uttered this falsehood, they have
no resource left to-day but to be consistent
in the lie, when the result of the votes shows
that the sentiment of the army is against
them, but to state now that the election was
a fraud and a farce, because they have all
the lime stated that certain regiments here
and there throughout the country were largely
democratic, as they call them—largely cop-
perhead. I know, and everybody else ac-
quainted with the circumstances has known
from the outset, that in a great many of those
regiments this was a lie. But at that time
there was no opportunity of proving the
truth.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. Will the
gentleman give us the definition of a copper-
head ?
Mr. PUGH. No, sir, not now; I did just
now. I said they were vipers who crept
where main disdained to climb. That is the
Style of them. I was saying that at the out-
set of this war, having heard this announce-
ment, I Knew very well and others knew
that they were falsehoods; but we did not
then know that in the course of the terrible
events through which we have been passing,
the day would arrive which has arrived, in
which the soldiers in the army could give ex-
pression to their true sentiments. Now fiat
day has arrived, and that expression is upon
the record. Hence those who uttered the
falsehood have no recourse left, but must say
that the election was a farce,
Their saving go dices not make it so; and
I defy the gentleman to show that his statement
is correct as a statement independent of
the newspapers. He is in a very safe position.
He has seen it in certain newspapers. I do
not doubt that. He may see a great many
things in those certain newspapers. But is it
true that these votes that have been cast in
the army of the Potomac and in the western
armies are not the true expression of the
sentiment of there soldiers? I deny it. I
challenge the gentleman to prove that there
has ever been a soldier in any army of the
United States who was not. perfectly at lib-
erty to vote as he pleased, just as much as if
be was at home. An American soldier generally
does that. I should think the gentle-
man from Anne Arundel had forgotten the
character of the nation when he supposed for
an instant that any commanding officer, any
captain of a company, would dare to say to
an American citizen in soldier's clothes, you
have got to vote so and so. He little under-
stands, in my judgment, the true character of
the American captain or the American sol-
dier. There is not a soldier in the ranks who
would permit any such interference with his
right of voting.
Mr. CUSHING, The opposition to every |
single thing offered in this convention to support
the government of the United States or
the Union, has culminated to-day in the at-
tack upon the army of the Union. I have
thought for three years that the safeguard of
this Union was its soldiers in arms at the
front. I had thought that if gentlemen
could speak so eloquently in favor of a re-
publican form of government, we would in
three years have had one word of praise for
the men that were giving up every thing to
preserve our free government, and finally
sealing their convictions with their blood.
The experiment of republican government in
which this country is now engaged, is being
tried, not here upon the floor of this hall,
but upon the line of the Potomac, and be-
fore Atlanta and Mobile. Republican gov-
ernment in danger from allowing the soldiers
of the Union to vote? The men of whom
the bulk of that army, who are American
citizens, is composed, are quite as intelligent,
quite as candid, inspired with quite as pure a
patriotism, as even the gentleman from Anne
Arundel (Mr. Miller.)
A comparison between the army of the
Union as to-day constituted and the army of
France, by an advocate of a republican form
of government by a gentleman here, upon
the ground of the last experiment vouchsafed
or to be vouchsafed by the Omnipotent Crea-
tor of the hum-in race, the experiment of re-
publican government, who for three long
years I guaranty has not uttered one' word in
defence of that army, not one word in defence
of these principles as against their aggressors,
coming here to-day and bidding you deprive
the people of the United States of the right
to vote ! I say " people of the United States,"
because to-day the army of the United States
is its people. There are more than votes
enough in the army of the United States to
change the whole destiny of this country;
and they are Union men. You have with-
drawn from the voting population of your
country over one million of adult miles, who
have gone to the front to defend your insti-
tutions. And yon are asked to throw the
destinies of your land into the hands of the
traitors that remain behind. You have taken
the defenders of republican institutions to
the front, and buried them under the sod,
and thousands have been left unburied in the
wilds of Virginia; and forsooth you are
asked to allow the traitor at home to decide
upon your institution..
This is not the verdict of the country. They
do hold higher the man at the front than the
man in the rear. They do hold higher the
men who have endangered their lives in the
front, than the man who can stand upon the
floor of this convention and enunciate his
belief in the utter falsehood that there has
ever been an election in the armies of the
United States at which any such words as he
says be saw in the newspaper, and which by |
