The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-07-07
President johnson and the Radicals.

give satisfaction to the uitraS and "falstatfS of
the Republican party, and no wonder. Should
the President insist upon and continue his policy,
as foreshadowed in his Mississippi and North
Carolina prociamatons, the hopes of the negro
philanthropiss aud itinerant lecturers are f1rev-
er blasted. Under this state of things they can
never realize their fbndest hopes-that of negro
equality, and the opportunity of filling all the
Offices in the rebelious States. But why should
we expect the President to pursue course differ
ent from the one adopted by him? His whole
political life is in keeping with his present policy
From his earliest existence as politician, he has
steadily adhered to the doctrine of States Rights
and but a few days since declared to a South
Carolina committee that he was better States
Rights man than either of them. If we take the
trouble TO examine the record of Mr.. johnson
while a member of the United States Congress,
we will not be surprised at this declaration. 1t is
but the reiteration of an opinion long entertain
ed and frequently expressed as well in as out of
the National Legislature. On the 18th day of
August, 1850, when the Presidents Message con-
corning Texas and New Mexico, was under con-
sideration in the United States House of Repre-
sentatives, Mr.. johnson is reported in the cap
pendix to the Congressional Globe" to have used
this language:
81 concur in the sentiments which were eX
pressed by my colleague, the other day, while
speaking on this subject. agree with him that
there is less danger of States flying off like
sparks, than there is of consolidation of Gov
eminent. The danger arises from the probabili-
ty there is of making the centrpetal power of the
government greater than the centrifugal. To
preserve the harmony and unity of all the parts,
the Government must be kept moving in its prop
er sphere. want to see no great central power,
created, like the sun in our solar system, with
its satellites revolving around the great central
head. | do not look upon this Government as
the centre of q system imparting its light, its
heat and motion TO the sovereign States as SO
many distant satellites. And whenever this
government attempts to encroach upon the pow
ers of the States, the duty of every man who
loves the Union, who is faithful to that Govern
ment which has been formed by the wisdom of
the fathers of the Revolution, is to step forward
and enter his protest against such encroach-
ments."
This is the doctrine upon which Mr.. John
son sets out and it is the doctrine of the Dem.
ocratc party, and according to the theory of the
above extract, the doctrine of the Republican
party is now, and always has been, inimcal to
the interest of the nation, and therefore oppres-
sive and mischievous.
Mr.. johnson in the proclamation to which ex-
ceptions, either directly or indirectly, have been
taken by all the Republican conventions held
since their issue, has done nothing more than
any patriotic and honest statesman would have
done under the same circumstances. He denies
that the States in rebellion were ever out of the
Union, but that by the resistance of portion of
the people Of these States to the proper and lawful
authority the national laws were for time sus-
pended. If this position of the President be
true--and we think it difficult to controvert it
then it follows clearly that the policy which he
has adopted in regard to these States in the true
policy ofthe government, and appears to be the
only manner in which they can be speedi-
ly restored to their positions in the Union, and
the people again clothed with their rightfnl priv
ileges. Had the President adopted the doctrine
of the leaders of the epublican-fasely called
Union party-then he would have admitted that
the mere act ola Legislature all that is necessary
to take State out of the Union, and that the doc
trne of secession is true; because, unless this be
tho fact what rirht hac N bo
shall be the electors in those States? Congress has
no such power, unless the States in rebellion
have changed their character, and become terri
tories, and if the character of those States have
become thus changed then the change has only
been brought about by legislative action, and he
who asserts the right of Congress to control these
States territories asserts the right of secession
in its broadest sense for he must hold that
States by legislative action can dissolve their
connection with the Federal Government, 9th
erwise they cannot be subject to the control of
Congress as territories are. But Mr.. johnson de-
MES this doctrine, and in his Mississippi procla.
nation clearly defines his position, using this
language: "And the said Convention, when
convened, or the Legislature that may thereafter
be assembled, will prescribe the qualification of
electors, and the eligibility of persons to Office
under the Constitution and laws of the State
a power the people of the several States compos-
ing the Federal Union, have rightfully exercised
from the origin Of the Government to the present
time.".
This is the very same doctrine to which Wash
ington and his co-workers in the original con.
structon of the Union subscribed, and against
which, we think, no true Union man can be
found. This is the same right with which every
State was clothed in the beginning, and which
was necessary to enable them to control and
regulate their domestic AFFAIRS and is the same
right by which the State of Rhode Island to-day
deprives large number of her citizens of the
right of suffrage, no matter how white his skin
may be; and though he may have the intellect
of a Clay and the wealth of On Astor, if he be
not a freeholder he cannot vote; and yet these
people assemble in conventions and pass resolu-
lions in favor IF granting to the negroes Of the