Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-05-29

1
shame so solemn anjact as o proclamation;
] aver uponhonOr that have never known,
| or conyersed, or held communication, either
directly or Indirectly, with Booth, the as
sassin Of the President, Orwith any one of
his associates, SO ,fagras L haze seen them,
named. ] know nothing of their plans. /
defy the evidence in the Bureau OF Military
Justice. The proof, whatever it is, Jis "a
tissue of faisehoods, and its, publication
cannot be made withoutlexposing its utter
| rottenness. ,.,.,
| know there Is not half the ground to
suspect me that there Is to suspect Presi-
dent johnson himself,g al l1yar.. ..'lD
First. There was abseneer of all motive
on my part. To have removed Lincoln at
the time it was done, was most Unfortunate
both for me and tor the people of the
| South. This ] have believed, zand have
often so expressed myself. President
fJohnson was to acquire n. dazzling power
in the event of Lincoln's death. ~ ''''+
Second. A paper is found lin President
Johns0n's room after the assassination,
signed by the assassin himself, to the effect
that he (Booth) does not wish to trouble
him (Johnson), but wants to know If he
| (Johnson) is in. Now, consider, this note
is from private citizen to high official
and it is certainIthat il it had been sent by,
any other man. at any other time, to any
other official except the. one most deeply in
terested in the event about to happen, it
would have implied previous intimacy and
! intercourse, and wish to have an inter-,
view without witnesses, which the writer
expected, circumstances admitting itsa. rr5
l. Third. President johnson goes to bed,
on the night of the assassination, at the UNI
| usual hour for Washington of nine o'clock,
and is asleep, of course when an anxious
| 81 10 N1s.l ts,,a.
| President to inform theneW incum bent OF
his great good fortune, which filed him
with unutterableT distress. .r.. f1r ....
Now, mark me, j do not say that all this
creates a suspicion in my mind of the com
pIicity of President johnson in the foul
work upon President Lincoln But this l
do say, that if such circumstances could be
so we'll taken against the Hon. b. G. Harris
| of MARYLAND, Ben. Wood of New York, or
| Mr.. Vallandigham OF Ohio, they would
| have been received in the Bureau OF Military
Justice as testimony as strong as proofs
| from Holy Writ. These facts may possibly
suggest to President. johnson and those
who owe their official position and personal
consequence to the breath of his nOstrils, .
good and sufficient reason why the excited
| public mind of the people of the United
| States, which has been lashed Into fury by
4
mands victim, should believe that there
was evidence in the bureau of Military
JUSTICE" to convict Southern men-''rebels
and traitorS"-of having ''incited, concert
ed and procured" the assassination of Pres
ident Lincoln. But, at all events. these
facts ought to teach President johnson a
lesson of moderation and charity to all those
suspected. | feel confident no fact, suscept-
ible OF being tortured by the shrewdest in
| genuity into a coorng SO untavorable, can
beshown in truth against President Davis or
myself, nor, do | believe, against any one OF
the gentlemen named in the proclamation.
Again, am denounced as IA traitor and
rebel in this proclamation. Let the world
judge between President johnson and my
self, not according to the law of might, but
according to the rules OfriglW. ..5 r.t.,'-.,.
For four years prior to the secession OF
Mississippi | was absent from7the State,
engaged in the service of the United States.
had no control and could exert no. influ-
enCe over the political action of the State,
President johnson on the tontrary, had
been in the meantime in the service of the
State of Tennessee, a while her chief mag
istrate, and then the representative of her
sovereignty in the Senate of the United
States, body in which all the States are
sovereign and equal irrespective ofstrength
and population. Prior to the war between
the States, we both had been Democrats
| and belonged to the same party. In our
| creed, the Virginia and Kentucky res6lui
! tions of '9S '99 set forth the. doctrine of
State Rights. Tbe Democratic party for
sixty years, with only temporary departures,
had held to their cardinal principles'as ini-
tiated by Jefferson and Madison, who had
become the great apostles of the party. By
them, we learn that the Constitution of
har 10 hnt
n sovereign States, each State acting for
\ itself and as an integral party. The
powers granted were merely delegated
i powers, to be exercised by a common agen-
4 cy for the common welfare. To avoid fu
II ture Misunderstanding, three Of the States,
in their articles of ratification, expressly
reserved the right to resume the powers
delegated whenever they believed they
were not used for their advantage. On the
i subject Of treason, the United States could
i declare no act 'treason, except the making
war upon the United States, and the giving
aid and comfort to the enemy. Each State,
however, being sovereign and having a
larger scope of'powers, could declare al
most any act treason; refusalt to bear arms
in her defense, to return home when re-
quired to do so, to bring into the common
treasury any proportion of the property
required of each citizen.b We were both
North Carolinians. When she refused to
ratify the Federal Constitution, we remain
ed North Carolinians, owed our. allegiance
to the State, and were bound to obey her
orders. BY her act of ratification after
ward, she fmade us citizens of the United
States. in consequence of her act and in
obedience to her order, we both were
bound to obey the constitutional laws and
regulations Of the United States, and if
either of us had been guilty of resisting the
law with an armed force, we would have
been guilty of treason, because we acted as
individuals on our own responsibility and
by our own mere motion, and theGlaws of
the United States operated directly on indi-
Viduals and individuals only, But, on the
contrary, if North Carolina, acting in her
sovereign capacity, resumed her delegated
powers for any cause, and then ordered
us to n take up arms in her defense,
obedience to her order might be construed
possibly as war upon the United States, but
we would not be guilty of treason as .indi-
viduals, because we would have had no
4 volition. g0uraetwould be the act Of the
State, and, if there was any guilt the State
would be guilty of .treason,i and that is a
manifest absurdity, as there is no, legal
mode ofpunishing a Statee And have our
II institutions been so miserably, constructed
as to place the citizen in a position which
forces him to be guilty OF the highest crime
known to the law without any volitionIof
his own, whenobedienee tQthe order of one
Government makes him guilty Of treason to