The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1865-11-30
9olhitaI.
The Presidents Position.----His
Views as to Restoration.


k Views as to Restoration.
Hon. A. K. Mcclure, prominent and in.
fuential politician of Pennsylvania, sends
, to the Franklin Repository, OF which he is
editor, sketch of an hours interview
with President johnson, which we copy
below. Those poutions of it which repeat
the Presidents views are of general inter
est; the comments and spcculations in
which Mr.. Mcclure himself INDUCES will
of course pass for what they are worth
He says:
However reticent tho President may be
on some issues, ho+ seems to have no re-
serve rs to the policy he conceives to be
the true one to bring back tho insurgent
States He discussed the position ofthosc
States and their people with great interest
and occasional warmth, and with frank
ness that left no doubt as to his purpose.
He holds that they were never out OF the
Union; that secession, however accom-
plished as a fact, cannot be accomplished
in law that the supreme authority of the
Government in those States was not over
thrown by the rebellion, but simply in
abeyancc; and of course it logically fol-
lows his premises that since the rebellion
has ceased, the States resume their proper
place in the Union, and ressordtion is oc-
complished This, in brief, was the stand
point from which the President discussed
the question of reconstruction for moro
than an hour, and answered suggestive
objections at times with an earnestness
that demonstrated how ardently he is
working to give success to his policy l
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 rebel
lion, and of necessity demand at his hands
commensurate punishment for what hs
must held as unmitigated crime, asappall-
ing murder and deselaticn, for which
there is no extenuation to be plead
f" You have" I added, given us on eve
ry hand the nations monument of'Mercy
where will be its monuments of JUS
ticc? Davis is proclaimed assassin, as
we'll rs traitor-his agents have died,
another Wirz will followv-how arc the
principals to atone to u people doubly
bcrcaved in their homes and in their chief
sanctuary of power2"
To this the President answered, with
much animation, that the measure of and
time for atoncment were yet for tho flu
ture to determine. I shall not soon for
get the emphasis with which he declared
that the South must como back and be q
part of us, "and," he added, it must
come with all its manhood. l don't want
it to come eyisceratcd of it's manhood" >"
To this proposition, abstractly, there could
be no objection made. We want the South
with all its manhood; which I would
conceive to be Southern people with their
treason abardoned and their crimes pun
isheG-not punished rcvengefully; not in
imitation of the gnillotine of Franco or
the Inquisition of Spain; but by making
the leaders who conspircd to overthrow
tho Government strangers to its honors
and its citizenship, and thus, through life,
the monuments OF the power, the justicc'
and the magnanimity .: tho mightest na-
ton of the Garth. The President said
that such may sc the measure of punish:
mcnt; that lie had pardoncd but few who
woull come under such rule; that there
are exceptions to all rules: and there were
: beth civil functionarics and army officers
who might be parioned with propriety
He said that he had not yet gone as tai
in his amnesty, either general or special
as Mr.. Lincoln proposed. lie explained
what is not generally known, that his
pardons are mainly of business men, many
of whom were Union men, who mus
have pardons to enable them to. sell o.
mortgage their lands, or to get credit il
: their business operations, and added tina
T he had not reached the consideration Q
such cases as Lee, Stephens, Longstreet
Beauregard, and others of that class.
y He spoke freely of the proposed trial
Davis, and said that as yet the Covert