The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-04-02
IoYDAY MORNENG, APRIL 2.
r. i a fact not to be denied that the

Tr iS a fact not to be QenleO InaI the
host friends of the President looked
mon the late Bill of Rights with a
great deal of Partially. Not that
thew were sure of the unimpeach-
ableness of all its details, for
many of them mistrusted that it was
too atitudinarian-but because they
loved its general animus-its interPosi-
ton on behalf of the weak against the
s1rong-its good will toward those who
stood alone as the friends of our cause
in the South during the war, and its
representative determination not
to let the late enemies of the
Union make a mockery OF the free
dom guaranteed to our humble and
helpless allies. Hence they feel disap-
pointed that the bill in some shape has
so far failed to become law, aud they
still indulge the hope that q substitute
free from the objections urged by the
President, and yet not emasculated Of
proper powers, will be gotten up and APP
proved ere Congress adjourns- We look
to such men as the Hon. John A. Blng-
ham tie able representative from the
district opposite us on the Ohio side, who
opposed the late bill, who on ac-
count oftheir discretion and moderation
have the necessary influence with the
President, to frame proper substitute
at an early day, and thus let the coun-
try have an assurance that the differ
ence now existing between the Execu-
tive and Congress is one of detail only
and not of principle. The President in
the closing paragraphs of his veto, ex-
pressly and pointedly recognizes the
sacredness of the obligation to main
tain the freedom of the emancipated
slave, and to protect and defend their
civil rights to the fullest extent comPnti-
BILE with the Constitution. His lam
guage is unmistakable, and is as fol-
flows:
"My lamented predecessor, in his
proclamation of the 1st OF January, 1863,
ordered and declared that all persons
held as slaves within certain States and
parts of States therein designated were
and they thence JOTiOurd should be free;
and further, that the Executive govern
ments of the United States, including
the military and naval authority there
of, would recognize and maintain the
freedom of such persons. This guran-
tee has been rendered especially obliga-
Tory and sacred by the amendment of
the Constitution abOlishing slavery
throughout the United States. l there
fore fully recognize the obligation to
protect and defend that class of our
people whenever and wherever it shall
become necessary, and to the full extent
compatible with the Constitution of the
United States. Entertaining these SEN
timenIs, it only remains for me to say
To - 4,
Congress in any measure that may be
necessary for the protection of the civil
rights of the freedmen, as well as those
of all other classes of persons through
out the United States, by judicial pro-
cess under equal and impartial laws, in
conformity with the provisions of the
Federal Constitution"
There is class of persons TO whom
the above language of the President
will be quite distasteful, but they will
not show it at present. We refer to
those who for well understood purposes
are clamously shouting his praises just
now. They belong to that party whom
hate of the negro, next to the cohesion
of public plumber, has kept together,
and who even now regard the black
loyalists of the South in no other
light than the proper vassals OF
the late rebls. Any sympathy
or sympathetic movements for
their protection is unbecoming n
democrat. just in proportion as this
class of clamorers Imagine that the
President is likely to turn away from
his record and leave the negro to the
tender mercics of his former masters,
do they extol him in their resolutions
and magnify him in all their private
conversations. We pray this class of
persons to observe that the President
proclaims his recognition of the fact
that the freedmen are the nations
wards, to be kindly cared for as regards
all attempts to impair the value oftheir
freedom, and his determination to re-
deem the pledges of his lamented pre-
decessor in reference to the unfortunate
people.