Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-20
Lincoln and JOhnsOn---IEOw History
will Paint their Portraits.
From the Memphis bulletin

4
| There are those disposed, in view of the
exactions made by President johnson. to
believe that Mr. Lincoln would have dealt
much more generously with the South. II
| we are not mistaken, Mr. Lincoln devised a
scheme of restoration" applied to Louisi-
ana and Arkansas. In July, 1864 General
Banks, uEder orders Of President Lincoln,
issued a proclamation which contemplated
the organization of State governments under
revised constitutions and iron-elad oaths.
Negro suffrage was compulsory. The State
was a nOn-entity A null secession had de-
| stroyed State vitality.
! in Arkansas the one-tenth basis of repre-
sentation was applied. The names of the
| States were retained, if we rccollcct Alright,
! and by this means alone, could their identity
| be recognized The retention Of boundary
| lines was of no significance, and Virginia,
| the mother of States, was ruthlessly dis
membered. Winter Davis concocted a
| scheme, passed by Congress, and we heard
that President Lincoln verbally approved it..
The States were deemed dead rebellious
citizens, forever DISTINGUISHED, were pro-
nounced unworthy of any office Represen-
tation was based upon the one-tenth system,
! infinitely worse than the three-fiiths basis
marvellous prescience was wont to in
weigh in the halcyon days of unwashed
| Tennessee democracy. We remember read
| ing in a Southern village, soon thereafter
| burned by Sherman, a speech on this sub
| ject, delivered in Congress By a man Of
| such glowing fancy, that, in vulgar parlance,
he is known as Sunset Cox. lie urged that
| this plan Of restoration would, in Tennessee,
par,uit aatar, fhor,,an1 f,.-, hunIroI apJ
! sixty-eight voters to rule a State of one
hundred and forty-iive thousand three hun
dred and forty-eight voters. One tenth Of
this number is 1854. A majority Of this
would be :, ,26S, ard these monopolizing Off
ces would hold the State in subiection'
From this destructive, cold-bloodcd wintry
Davis plan, Brownlow's model government
derives its conception Of duty to the people
Of Tennessee. Seven thousand Radicals
would thus enslave the State forever. Mr..
Lincoln was satisfied with this plan, though
he pocketed the Bill, with the declaration
that he would, if passed, give il Executive
aid"
Ii appears that President johnson ap-
proves neither the Banks plan, applied to
Louisiana and Arkansas with the sanction
Of Mr.. Lincoln, nor the Winter Davis mode
Of eyiscerating statehood. johnson holds
that State governments and boundary lines
are no less indestructible than the Federal
Union. The Constitution cOntemplates the
possibility Of individual criminality, but it,
trainers never 30 defined treason. that States
could compass it. johnson, by a sweeping
amnesty, relieves citizens OF disabilities, and
by his conduct Of local and national govern
ments, makes Tennessee a wedge which so
cleaves the Union, compacted by Radicaism,
that all these States may become embodied
in the great tree Of Liberty, beneath whose
branches, countless myriads and generations
Of freemen, in perfect security, may rcposc
forever. johnson ignores the onc-tenth
mode Of defining voters, aud denies Federal
right of interference in the question of sIf-
frage, whether affecting whites or blacks
He restores rights, suspended to States,
whose entity and entirety were never suspen-
ed. He resorts not to military power, bat by
conventions, chosen by unawed, unrestricted
suffrage, reinvests them with all secmly
habiliments to mike them welcome guests At
an endless ''re-Hnion" He requires slavery
10 be abandoned finally and forever; because.
be would postpone, finally and forever,
another such reign Of nadness and deInOnisIn
a. that which slavery enabled politicians 10
bring down upon Our unhappy country.
Whatever blessings may be ascribed % ne
gro seryitude, the woes il hn innoeently in
hicted on the country outweigh them all !;
and we may not complain that the President
renders their recurrence impossible Lin
coin once required assent to negro suffrage
not johnson, who would only have the Afri-
can protected in all rights as man. There
is but one body Of laW-givers on earth, this
side DahOmey, who would have denied
freemen the right to testify, and that WIS
found buried in stone and stupidity, at
Nashville. We had innocently supposed,
though attendance at our white criminal
court might confuse somewhat, ideas on this
subject, that the object of testimony was 10
elicit truth. What it has 10 do with negro
equality" unless il eqlalize blacks and
knaves, addicted TO ojuridical hard-swearing,
we could never imagine. II negroes we're
the only liar in the worl,l, we wOtiid have
their testimOny rejected and not ether
vice