The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-06-14
DIetatIOn Of Congressmen.

"09 SPOEteu come weeks Z mat
Mr.. Ashley, the modest member of Con
gress from the Toledo District, Ohio.
and other Congressman, who desired to
have a hand in the executive admins
ton of the Government, had taken
upon themselves the responsibility of
i%nstructiDg President johnson relative
to his duties. But little attention was
paid to the matter, and it was likely
soon to have been entirely forgotten.
But Mr.. Ashley has prevented this. On
Tuesday evening, June 9th, the honor
able gentleman entertained a number
OF his friends and supporters who had
met for the purpose of bidding him
'good bye'-(he was to leave the next
day on a trip across the plains TO the
far West)-With q speech. In that
speech he gave them an account of his
trip to Washington and his interview
with the President He said he, and
those who accompanied him, urged the
President TO withdraw Mr.. Lincoln's
proclamation for certain specified rea-
sons. He added: 1--WE succeeded. Eve
~ condition we earnest men asked for
was put into the new proclamation.
Upon only n question did we differ,
and this was on the question whether,
upon the reconstruction OF re-organiza-
ton of the rebel governments, the col
ored soldiers and colored loyal citizens
should be allowed to vote; or whether,
because of the color of their skin, they
we're to be excluded from this privilege.
Further he said:
"hlS protesting 10 desire, in his inter
view with US, that all men ahould vote,
without distinction Of color, the President,
embarrassed himself aud us with this idea
that the States which had been in rebel
lion are still states-or in other words, tbs.
the governments Of these States vera not
destroyed, but We're only in aboyanoe. and
that when the rebellion was suppressed, or
the laws and Constitution revived, neither
he nor Congress had any authority to pre-
scribe the qualification Of electors in those
States. replied 10 him by saying Nat
while l had nc disposition to press anythe-
DRY of my own-willing as I was to subor-
dinate any such theories to the accomplish
ment of the great purpose in yieE-I said
to him frankly, that his decision was an
tsgonistic to two decisions made by the su-
preme COurt-one by Chief Justice Taney,
and the other by Chief Justice Chase. /
said to him, according 70 the
dicta of these judges that he could
as readily e~nfranchiss the black man as
disfranehise the whte, for that, under the
Constitution, or airy law Of Congress, he
had no power but The military power to say
who should or SHOULD not vote at the PEE
liminary elections for reeonstruction-that
II he could exclude one man as a voter IN
der the Constitution, ne could exclude ten
thousand, and that If he could admit any
one man TO vote he could admit all loysl
men without regard to color. I need not
tell you what the answer was to that. I
merely said to him that the Anti-slovery
party had destroyed The old Wing and
Democratic parties-that the wrecks of
these parties were now scattered and strewn
along the political coast-and that wo in
tended, under God, to crush any party CT
any man who stood up against the universal
enfranchisemsnt of the country.
Some one of Mr.. Ashley's colleagues
ought 10 fill the hiatus his modesty
left by informing the country what
it was hat President johnson an
swered. 1t is true the country is vastly
more concerned about what Mr.. Ash
ley said and threatened but still It
would not object to hearing what even
so humble an officer as the President
said in defence of himself.
We gather enough from Mr.. Ashley's
revelations 10 know ths. President
johnson does not intend 10 be dra-
gOoned into a violation Of the Cons.i-
tuition 70 force negro suffrage on the
Southern States. Having taken this
position, neither Mr.. Ashley, nor Mr..
Phillips, nor Judge Chase, nor anybody
else, can move him to change his base
They may declare war against him, and
wage it bitterly but he will win the
victory.