American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-07-26


But let us leave the question to time
to the careo of loyal Congress--to the
vigilant fidelity of devoted Union Pres
ident, who proclaimed himself the friend
of the masses of the colored race of Ten
nessee, and will never allow them to be
oppressed bytheir recent masters. Ii will
not be many days before these latter real
ize, by the best evidences that the only
way to secure the admission of their Sen
ators and members to CongIess is to adopt
the amendment Of the Constitution abol-
ishing slavery, to provide for the educa-
ton of the colored population, and for
the payment of colored labor by wise
and gene. Gus plan, and to repeal the obi
Gus penal codes made necessary by the
accursed system of slavery. Till these
things are secured, they will be kept out
the halls of the nations legislature.
When they are secured, the American
| Citizen of African decent will have
chance to fit himself for that sacred citi-
zenship which ought never to have been
bestowed upon ignorant or lazy men,
whteaor black Both Lincoln and John
son agree, therefore, that there can be no
destruction of State sovereignty by seces-
sivn-that the question of suffrage be-
longs to the States, and not to Congress
and that slavery is dead by military
success, by Executive proclamation, by
Congressional statue, and by the acts
soon to be completed by the threefourths
of of the States, ratifying the amendment
of. the National Constitution forever abol-
ishing it.
When the impulsive Romeo, eager to
propitiate his love, you'd have hurried
the philosophical and tranquil Friar Lau-
renee, who promised to aid him in his
suit, the patient priest exclaims
@wisely and slow; they stumble that run FAST
Let as take the axiom and the moral to
our own hearts. The swift and dazzling
panorama of war, which flashed its me
teor changes before our astoupded eyes,
and achieved reforms that could not have
been wrought by centuries Of peace,
should not tempt Us into spirit OF fatal
imitation. The fabric of free Govern
ment saved in the shock of battle will
soon resettle into the regular grooves OF
law and order. Institutions necessarily
set aside, that treason might be punished,
and Government be able to put forth all
its energies in the struggle for its exist
ence, will soon resume their wholesome
influence. Time, reflection, system, are
the essential auxiliaries. Nor, indeed,
need we be in hggte. Least Of all should
we apprehend failure, because of present
doubts and contingent difficulties Be-
hold the catalogue of wonders on the
page of the four last years history
wrought in the progress of this triumph
ant war for human freedom. In an age
that, compared with the last generations,
seems like an age Of miracles, the over
throw of the rebellion was the grandest
and most sublime of miracles. The ma
lignant prophecies Of our enemies every
where, which they are now 50 anxious to
forget, glare upon them from the page OF
history, like so many reproaches OF their
ignorance and their hatred Iu war, on
land and sea, in finance, in craftsmanship,
in diplomacy, in the inexhaustibility Of
our resources, in our inventions, in the
wondrods prosperity and comfort of the
loyal people. in the leliverance of. four
millions of human beings from slavery, in
the disbanding of multitudinous army,
andthe dismantling of ana<s larger than
that of any of the nations of the earth,
we may find not only the material for fe.
licitation but for superior and solid
consolation. There is no lion in the path
of our future so fierce as those which have
been subdued and slain in the paths Of
the past. Let us, therefore, conhde ouI
destiny to the constituted and censtltu-
tional agencies of the Government, and tc
that benign Providence which has watch
ed over us from the perilous beginning tc
the victorious close,
"A pew in a Congregational meet.
ing-house is thus advertised for sale
in the Amherst, Massachusetts,, Er.