Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-10-05

90 Because when rebels were starving
our brave soldiers by the hundred at Libby
Belle Island Andersonville and elsewhere
these same leaders excused or mitigated
the crime by declaring that "they fed oul
prisoners as well as they did their own men !
that lowing to the unconstitutional block
ade Of the tyrant Lincoln, they could not
obtain a sutliciency of food"
PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE OPPOSITION.
The Opposition have not been so consist
ent in their course towards President John.
son as they have on the subject of the war
Prior to his denomination they abused, vii
lifted and denounced him From the time
of his nomination until the election no cpl
thets were too coarse From the inaugura-
tion until the death of President Lincoln they
continued it the same strain. After that
they began to 1atter-then to approach
When he ordered the execution of the as
sassins they sent forth loud howl of in
dignation. When he ordered a trial of the
Andersonville wholesale murderer, and
talked Of trying Jefferson Davis, they were
about to give him up in despair. But now
they profess to grow a little more confident.
| They endorse him in Maine and New York.
They indorse him (provided he will do as
| they wish) i'll Pennsylvania. Ii 1868 they
spoke of him thus : Senator Lamberton
| Record Of 1868, page 369: But then he
was Andrew johnson the Democrat. Now,
however, he has deserted his post of honor
| in Tennessee ; he is stultifying his past
record he has become pensioner on pow
er and defender of the usurpations Of
Abraham Lincoln and he appears among
us to-day as an itinerant peddler of Abolit-
ionism" Senator Wallace, page 374 Our
ing all the existence of the rebellion, where
is Andrew johnson? In the Senate of the
United States, asking protection for him
and fellows under the bayonets Of the sold
iers of Mcclellan. He is never found in
arms in defence Of his State, or vaIiantly
fighting in defence of the liberties of his
people, against the armed cohorts of the
rebellion. Never, never " Senator ely
mer, page 377 " say, sir, that his John
son's) appointment, by the President Of the
United States, to that position was a usur-
patton Of power on the part of the Presi-
deni.' X That is my position, so
far as concerns this pretended Governor of
Tennessee. But without regard to any
question of his official position. take An
drew Johnson as an individual. i x
| never by my vote, will allow man to
come into these halls, and from this place
speak to the people of this great State in
support of what | know to be illegal, I'M
constitutional and tyrannicaI acts of the
Federal Government. | know, sir, that An
drew Johnson has gone as far as the faith
crest, and is ready to so still further, to de-
stroy, to uproot, to upturn every principle
upon which this great and good govern
ment of ours was founded. | knew that he
has bent with suppliant knee before the
throne Of power | know that for pclf, or
some other consideration, he has succumb-
ed to every measure presented to him for
approval or disapprovaI."
These political leaders now are simply
watching their chances, hoping that some
thing may turn up which may enable them
to return to power. In New York they
adopted platform at variance with all
their past professions, and actually refused
to condemn negro suffrage ! They hope to
use President johnson to subserve their
selfish purposes.
THE CHARGE OF NEGRO EQUALITY.
For many years our political opponents
seem to have a large investment III slavery
and the negro Now that slavery is pret-
ty generally admitted to be dead, it was
thought that they might allow the old sub
.ject to rest But not so. They return to
the question with as much apparent zeal
and warmth as ever With a full knowl-
edge of the fact that negro suffrage and
negro equality are not and could not possi
bly, be an issue in the October contest, they
are making extraordinary efforts to mislead
and deceive their fellow-citizens into a con-
trary belief They think that our hostility
and prejudices against the negro are so
great, and that they have so often appealed
to these with some show of success, that
it is only necessary to repeat the effort in
order to accomplish their designs. They
tell you that efforts are being made to ele-
vate the negro, and to place the two races
on an equality. They seem to be very much
afraid that some poor degraded negro may
outstrip them in the race of life. They tell
us that these negroes are weak, ignorant
and inferior to the whites. If 50 it would
seem that they needed our help and assis-
tance to educate and instruct them. The
only danger of equality we can see is, that
some white men, by continuing longer in
such course OF argument, IN utter dlsre-
gard to truth, experience and history for
the base purpose Of reaching the prejudices
of the thoughtless, may at least succeed
in bringing themselves down to or beneath
the level of the negro The time was when
they confidently declared that the destruct-
ion Of slavery would send swarms of ne
grocs into cur midst to drive away white
laborers. Experience has shown that the
few we had here ran away from slavery
in the South, and that had there been 40
slavery there these negroes in the North
would have long since moved South. They
told us, too, that in case Of war, the
slaves would all fight for their masters
Neither Southern masters nor their North
ern allies have any faith i'll this now. But
these politicians cannot live without the
negro. He comprises nearly their entire
stock in trade. One year it is one phase Of
the negro question; another year it is some
thing else.
The great work of Bishop Hopkins was
once one of their standard works 1t is
rather dull sale this year. The conduct of
these politicians towards the poor degraded
negro would be past all comprehension had
we not a memorable example of the same
kind in the early history of the human race.
All the troublesome and deadly plaques of
Egypt, including the death of all the first
born of the land, were not sufficient to reach