The Daily Dispatch

General Burnside on Southern Congressmen.

Providence, R. I., February 15.—The Grand Army of the Republic gave a complimentary banquet this evening to General Burnside, senator-elect. The General responded to the sentiment in his honor by a speech, in the course of which he said: "Some of our people are naturally enough alarmed at the election to Congress by the southern people of a large number of the ex-officers of the Confederate army. Now, comrades, it seems to me that a little consideration will show that there is no great occasion for alarm.

"These ex-officers, it should be remembered, are under paroles of honor. Whilst we all hold that the most sacred earthly duty of an American citizen is that of loyalty to the Republic, yet we must not lose sight of the fact that a soldier, in the individual capacity of a soldier, can recognize no contingency that would make him violate his parole.

"There is every reason why these ex-Confederate soldiers in Congress should see that they were clearly honest, if you please, but, with the present lights before them clearly in the wrong; every reason why they should be loyal citizens, and every reason why they should sacredly keep their paroles of honor, whether given in person or in an implied form, by accepting their liberty under a general understanding between their leaders and the authorities of the General Government. Let us hope, comrades, that the present troublous, threatening signs will pass away; but should such fond hopes fail of realization, let us feel and know that the Government has ample power to protect itself, and that the people will never again sit idly by and allow treason to gather head.

"The people are anxiously impatient to see all the States of the Union under the supervision of their own properly constituted authorities, and the authorities of the Government are equally anxious and impatient for this result. We should not forget that but ten years have passed since we emerged from the gigantic conflict.

"It should not be expected that all the wounds would be so quickly healed, and that a system of labor which had obtained for so many years in the South would be rapidly replaced by a new system; that the embers of hate and malice would be so rapidly quenched. But the wounds will be healed in time. The system of free labor will be established on a firm basis, and the embers of hate and malice will be quenched."

[Good for Burnside. We had not expected even that much of liberality from a State that endorses Senator Anthony's course towards the South.]