The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-08-17
Stand bv the Administration


full of doubt and uncertainty, and dark
clouds lowered ever the country, We were
want to make earnest appeals to the peo-
pie Of the North to stand firm in the faith
of ultimate victory, and to raise up and
strengthen the hands of him who has
since been martyred, by cordial sympa-
thy cooperation in the great business of
putting down the rebellion. And the
dangers and struggles of that time, it was
almost treason to hesitate or doubt Ne,
cessity seemed to demand an unques-
tioning support to the Government de-
facto, regardless of the political issues he
was supposed to represent.
In the presence of our great emergency
all considerations of political policy were
blotted out, and in the popular express
sions at the polls, during those years, was
exhibited the solemn sense of the masses
OF the absorbing and controlling necessity
of standing by the government regardless
of party. Looking back upon those days
upon the overwhelming defeats which
were registered against the democratic
party, and the bitter odium which at
tached to those who evinced lack OF
sympathy to the government,-w can see
the true secret of our national strength
and our national success. 1t rested in
the exalted loyalty of the masses, which
subordinated everything to an unques-
tioning loyalty, and cast aside, or at least
postponed, the old issues upon which they
had been arrayed in bitterly hostile fac
tions. 1t was demonstration of reliable
high moral popular sentiment sufficient
to preserve the nation in SO great crisis.
Now that we have emerged successfully
from the terrible armed struggle, and
have reverted to q condition of quasi
peace, there are many among us who mis-
takenly imagine that the necessity for a
steady and persistent support 1.-The Gov
ernment is at an end. They forget that
in everything except its armed array, the
South toward the Union is unchanged,
and that in the silent struggle of recon
struction which has interviewed all the
fruits of our bloody sacrifices are involved.
They forget, somewhat too easily, We
think, the unscrupulous nature of the
foes with whom we have contendcd, and
the unchanged bitterness which has anima
ted and will continue to animate them,
until the last detail Of rehabilitation shall
have been irrevocably settled. They
seem to forget that under the promptings
of humiliating defeat the rebels are still
full of that ''unconquerable hate and study
Of revenge" which animated Milton 5
Lucifer and that so far as results are
concerned, the present is crisis equally
if not more important, than that which
existed 10 the darkest hour Of the war.
We deem it to be now, as much as ev-
CT, the duty Of true patriotism to rally
around the national administration, and
to sustain the President by pronounced
and CO operative popular sentiment in the
difficult and critical task to which he has
fallen heir through the assassination of
his predecessor. We believe him to be
actuated by the purest and best of mo-
tives, and impcllcd by wise regard for
the law, in the enunciations of his policy
We believe that he has hit upon the best
and most feasible method of harvesting
the fruits Of our recent struggle, and that
it differs in no essential from the policy
which would have been adopted and car
ried out by Abraham Lincoln had he
lived.
With regard to the great substantial
accomplishment of the war-the aboli-
ton of slavery-the President is as firm
as adamant. In that direction he has
showed no>shadow of turning, no infrm-
ity Of purpose. He has laid it down as
the corner stone of his policy that every
rebel State shall harmonize its organic
law to that end that it shall return to
the Union only through that gate, and
that it must come in spirit and in truth,
emancipated. With him this is the Al
pha and Omego of rehabilitation, simply
because his province extends no further.
The question of suffrage is one WI,
which he has nothing to do as tie Chief
Executive of the Nation. lie leaves il
where he finds it--w::,,ii, the States them.
selves-under tti4e indirect coercion invol-
we'd III tie fact that Congress is the Gnal
Ju@ge Of the extent of organic prepara-
ton necessary to entitle rebel States to
resume their Federal relations. In sub
stance, President johnson has said to the
States, "Clothe yourselves with the al
tered status which has resulted from your
own acts, and then present yourselves to
me. Primarily | will pass upon the mil
ltary question involved, and which be-
longs to me to decide, as Commander in
Chief. When | have done so, and have
officially recognized you as in a condition
of peaceful allegiance, then, and not till
'hen, can you incur the civil law for its
Judgment upon your rights"
This president johnson has declared
It involves the gist of the whole subject
Of restoration of the States, so far as his
authority extends. To that extent it is
he duty of every good and loyal citizen
o rally around and sustain him, as much
% as if it were contest between him and
foreign power.-Bu6alo Commercial.
The thousand freedmen and their fam.