The evening Argus., 1865-09-07
(Concluded.l


They were pressed into the army by con-
scription If they fed from their homes and
hid In morasses to escaps they were hunted
down by blood hounds and put in the front
of battle with the regulars of the golden cir
Gle in the rear The property OF every body
was q prey, and those on y who protessed the
utmost zeal To the military power could hope
to have any share in what belonged to them.
Is it not monstrous that our government
should hold people, pat in this predica-
ment, if we may not say by Its own acts, yet
certainly by Its supineness and acquies-
cence, responsible for the crimes of an usur-
patton thus put over them?
And yet the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens
takes this stand for the government OF the
United States In the resolutions which he re-
Gently got up a convention TO pass at Harris
burg. lie thinks that, as Pennsylvan Sc
lected Mr.. Buchanan presid mt. who devoted
his administration to hatch the treason which
has trodden down the great commonalty of
our own race in the south, so it has elected
him "a an agent to complete their destruction
and set up foreign race to take their place
in the national commonwealth.
According TO the programme OF the Ste
veus resolutions there are no loyal men in the
south but the enfranchised blacks the white
men who succum ued TO the usurpation and
Obeyed it's behests- and this every man was
compelled to dds disfrsnchised as disloyal.
In logical sequence, from this state OF facts,
the national Legislature is to absorb all legls-
lstion, state and national, over the whole
south. It is to assume absolute power over
everything south of Mason aud Dixon's line
and how is it 10 be exercised?
Mr.. Stevens, forgetting that our govern
ment was bound by the constitution to pro-
tect the people of every state from all do u es-
10 vialanra nd nall
invasion, and in failing to do it might be
Justly held 10 indemnify the loyal people who
have suffered by the rebellion, has the hsrdi- |
hood to declare In his resolutions that the /
people of the south, en- masse, confoundlng |
the innocent with the guilty, are bound. out
of their substance, to pay the whole national
ebt incurred by the war. This is somewhat
like tying a milestone round the neck of eve
ry man of the commonalty and throwing him
into the ocean. 1t certainly overwhelms him
in food from which he can hardly swim
put with such a weight.
But this. as it may be said, is only life
ong incumbrance of generations which
makes the poor white posterity who have
lved In slave states expiate, a. the children,
he sins of their forefathers. But lest some
men who have considerable substance in land
'r other estate that has survived the war may
20 to work and build up again an independ-
nee for themselves and their devoted coun-
ry, Mr.. Stevens has provided another sweep Z
ng resolution, which outs down at one blow
ii such aspirations. The resolution is that
onhscation, like our great reaping machines, :
hall be driven by a steam engine of our alb
olute governmens--absolute over the south !
-and reduce all fortunes TO $40 900 value -
does not say whether the valuation is to =
9 confederate paper or green backs. But
Thether it be one or the other, the stubble- }
eld will be little worth the cleaning when =
re shall have first extracted the war debt II
'om the unhappy subjects of the rebellion.
. get government sufficiently hardened to e.
xecute these DEGREES, MIR. Stevens appeals a
the soldiers, and tells them that no man is Ii
yer to be nominated to any Office unless he b
as served IN the field. So they are to be the r,
spensers of all the spoils of the stript, the r
aked children. How little this veteran pol. n
ician knows the magnanimcus patriots who Il
ught the battles for the liberal and merci- b
Il institutions of our country They are the CT
st men in the world to urge to cruelty in lie
Id blood. These men, when hungry took of
70 bread out of thoir own haversacks aud m
I've, with their canteens, to their PROSTATE il
es. Let them judge the south, aud we are m
brothers. le
Mr. Stevens NEXT promises the manufactur- nc
8 un bou nded protection if they will he d him or
strip the south and reduce il to utter rum. w,
ne manufacturers, so far from doing this, ri,
III lend it their capital, at least credit, that i'd
ey may clothe them and enable them 70 ba
oduce fresh material for their operatives re-,
d rich markets for the result Of their sue w,
ssful industry. He appeals to the holders va
the government bonds, saying the plunder me
the south is to pay their debt. They re- no
7, we Will not XIII the goose that lays the tn,
lden egg. ha
But who 10 to execute the drsgonic DEGREES ms