The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-11-23
The Presidcnt's Position md Views
ms to Restorntion.


Hon. a. 4. Mcclure, a pronai..uutt
and influential politician of Pennsyl-
vania, sends to the franklin Reposi-
tory, of which he is editor, a sketch
of an hours interview with President
johnson, which we copy below.
Those portions of it which repeat the
Presidents views are of general inter
est the comments and speculations
in which Mr. Mcclure himself in
dulges will of course pass for what
they are worth. He saws:
However reticent the President NAV
be on some issues, he seems to have
no reserve as to the policy he con-
celves to be the true one to bring
back the insurgent States. He dis
cussed the position of those States
and their people with great interest
and occasional warmth, and with a
frankness that left no doubt as to his
purpose. He holds that they were
never out of the Union; that seces-
sion, however accomplished as a fact,
cannot be accomplished in law that
the supreme authority of the Govern
ment in those States was not over
thrown by the rebellion, but simply
In allegiance; and of course it logically
follows his premises that, since the re-
bestton has ceased, tie States resume
aseiT proper place in Sic Union, and
restoration is accomplished. This, in
brief, was the standpoint from which
the President discussed the question
OF reconstruction for more than an
hour, and answered suggestive objec-
tlOns at times with an earnestness
that demonstrated how ardently he is
working to give success to his policy.
could not but remind him that his
theory stripped all traitors OF the
protection they might claim as public
enemies; that it would stamp as guilty
of treason within the law every man
who aided the rebellion, and of ne
cessity demand at his hands commen-
surate punishment for what he must
hold as unmitigated crime, as appall-
ing murder and desolation, for which
there is no extenuation to be plead.
You have" I added, "given us on
every hand the nations monument of
Mercy-where will be its monuments
OF Justice? Davis is a proclaimed
assassin, rs well as traitor-his
agents have died, another Wirz will
follow-how are the principals to
atone to people douL,y bereaved in
their homes and in their chief sane
tuary of power ?''
To this the President answered.
with much animation, that the mea-
sure Of and time for atonement were
yet for the future to determine. I
shall not soon forget the emphasis
with which he declared that the
South must come back and be part
OF US, ''and," he added, sit must
come with all its manhood. I don't
want 1t to come eviscerated of its
manhood" To this proposition,
abstractly, there could be no objec-
ton made. We want the South with
all Its manhood; which I would con-
ceive to be Southern people with
their treason abandoned and their
crimes punished-not punished re-
vengefully; not in imitation of the
g;lluotine of France or the Inuuisi
ton of Spain; but by making the
leaders who conspired to overthrow
~ CO'ot nAAoAC SlIdHSeIS TO us
honors and its citizenship, and thus,
through life, the monuments of the
power, the justice, and the maguani-
nifty of the mightiest nation of the
earth. The President said that such
may be the measure of punishment;
that he had pardoned but few who
would come under such a rule; that
there are exceptions to all rules, and
there were both civil functionaries
and army officers who might be par
doned with propriety. He said that
he had not yet gone as far in his am
nesty, either general or special, as
Mr.. Lincoln proposed. He explained,
what is not generally known, that his
pardons are mainly of business men,
many of whom We're Union men, who
must have por5ons to anob1a tbo,,, =