The Nashville Daily Union

Secretary Stanton was extremely guarded in his remarks to the serenaders who extracted a speech from him on Wednesday evening, but he substantially declared himself for the policy of the President. He stated that his judgment had yielded to adverse arguments resting upon the practical difficulties of enfranchising the negroes of the South. He regarded the Freedmen's Bureau Bill as no longer a living measure or the subject of debate or of a difference of opinion, and the Civil Rights Bill as "passed to the statute book, and not a subject of debate." As to the Congressional plan of reconstruction, he is "unable to perceive the necessity, justice or wisdom of the measure," and he awarded to those who differed with him the same honesty and perhaps greater wisdom than he could claim for himself. All this was very tame for Stanton—not at all in the style for which he has been noted. It is not as deep as a well nor as wide as a church door, but sufficient to show that he has not been misrepresented when ranked among the supporters of the President.—Cis. Com.