The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1865-06-10
President .Johnson,s Course.

son. Nearly all reasonable men in the dem
cratic party including those in whom passion
And prejudice have not wholly usurped the
place of reason, acknowledge that slavery is
dead and buried. They are willing to sup
port the President, and ask that they may be
permitted,tO do so; that bye-goues be bye
cones, and that the people of the north be
rot prevented from exhibiting an united
front IN fa"or Of reeonstructng the country
| as they were from supporting the admih'stfs-
ton Of President Lincoln carrying on the
war
So writes Springfield (Ill.) correspondent
of the Chicago Republican. We have no
doubt he is substantially correct. Slavery
is dead, and no democrat: desires to see the
doubted but that it would die with the rebel
lion and the only fault Democrats found
with the administration in the matter was,
that It WIS unwilling to accept the destruc
ton of slavery as an incident of the war, and
stick to the suppression of the rebellion and
restoration of the Union as the object, instead
OF putting the cart before the horse, and
making the inevitable incident the object,
thus greatly embittering and prolonging the
strife, aid increasing it's expenses to an
amount sufficient to have bought the slaves
three times over.
But the rebellion being suppressed, and SO
far the democrats being satisfied; and slave
~ being destroyed, thus satisfying the abo IL
tionists, by cones on these matters are by
cones per force, and the only question renal
ming is as to reconstruction. The radical
abolition idea on this question has been
wholly to ignore in the matter the southern
state organizations; to treat them as unor
ganized territories; to place them under the
tutelago Of congress, or rather the President,
as military head Of the nation. who, before
they could even apply for re-admission into
the Union, must come with constitutions
recognising the manhood" ofthe negro, his
perfect equality with the white man before
the law, his right to vote and hold Office, &c,
&c.
Andrew Johnson scouts this whole scheme.
The states were never dead, he says. Rebels
had seized on their governments, and WELD
ed their powers for a season, during which
the legitimate STATE governments were in
condition of suspended animation. But
witt the end OF this surreptitious and Illegal
reign the states return to life as q man from
4 trance. the life blood courses again through
their veins, and they are ipso tactO restored
to their functions, and all their former rights
uuI.r tho constitution
Thus in the case of Virginia, he recognizes
a. once the Pierpont government, and thus
the fact that there has Lot in that state, been
even an interruption of the loyal state gov
eminent.
la his North Carolina pro Ella nation, again
scouting tie abolition idea of his own omui-
potance, and the rights of the negro, he directs
that a constitutional convention shall be
elected, and the state organized in pursuance
OF tn laws of that state in force immediately
before the rebellion, or before the loyal state
government went into state OF suspended
animation.
In all these things, Andrew Johnston is
/,
! tI."in.ei""d 1t is exactly the Mcclellan idea
of reconstruction, maintained through the
whole OF the last presidential contest No
wonder, then, that this Springfield coErespon
dent finds in the democrats "a general in
clination to support President Johnson"
But Low is it with the radical abolitionists :?
We hold nothing is more CERTAIN in the i'm
m .diatc future than that the radicals and
President Johnston will quarrel and part
company. Indeed this is past prophecy alrea-
dy. Wendell Phillips has within a week SCUM
. ded the tocsn for an assault. Sumner, vii,
| son, and Chase close upon his heels, the
! | tile T,iJunes will soon chime in, and in q
month all aboli.iondom viii be in full howl.
The surprise will soon be less tina, democrats
support johnson, than that there aboiitionists
that do, if there are any.