Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-09-27
RUTLAND HERALD.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER "a, 1866.
Address of the National Union
COMMITTEE.


pointed and diguhed. The differences
between the President and Congress are
calmly but clearly stated, and the whole
address is one which will well bear
reading and study.
F,Ho,r, Citizens: Very grave differences
having arisen between your immediate
Representatives in Congress and the
President, who owes his position to your
votes, we are impelled to ask your atten-
ton thereto and to suggest the duties
to your country which they render i'm
perative.
We shall avoid the use OF hard words.
Ot these, there have already been too
many. And that the matters in issue
s may be brought within the narrowest
4 compass, let US first eliminate from the
controversy all that has already been
4 settled or has never been in dispute.
The Republic has been desperately as
& sailed from within, and its very exist
4 enCe seriously imperiled. Thirteen States
i were claimed as having withdrawn from
& the Union, and were represented for
years in a hostile Congress meeting at
Richmond. Ten of these States were,
for time, wholly in the power OF hos
tile confederacy; the other three partial
" so. The undoubtedly loyal States
were repeatedly and formidably invaded
by rebel armies, which were only expell-
:. ed after obstinate and bloody battles.
Through four years of arduous, desperate
civil strife, the hosts of the rebel Con-
federacy withstood those OF the Union.
Agents of that Coufederacy traversed the
civilized world, seeking allies in their
war against the Republic. and melting
n the rapacious and unprinCipled to fit out
armed COrsairs to prey upon her COM
merce. By State authority, and in the
perverted names of patriotism and 10y
atty, hundreds of thousands of our coun-
try men were conscripted into rebel
armies and made to fight desperately for
our national disruption and ruin. And
8 though, by the blessing Of God and the
4 valOr and constancy of our loyal people,
/ the rebellion was finally and utterly
Il crushed, it did not succumb until it had
n caused the destruction OF more than half
q million of precious human lives, not to
speak of property to the value OF at least
q five billions of dollars.
At length, the rebel armies surrender
ed and the rebel power utterly collapsed
and vanished. What then
The claim of the insurgents that they
either now re. e.acQuired or had never for
.eited their constitutional rights in the
Union. inClnGing that of representation
lin Congress, stands in pointed antagon-
ism alike to the requirements OF Con-
gress and to those of the acting Prest
dent. It was the Executive alone
who. after the rebellion was no more,
appointed Provisional Governors for the
now Submissive, unarmed Southern
States, on the assumption that the rebel
lion had been Revolutionary" and had
deprived the people under its sway of all
civil government, and who required the
assembling Of "a Convention, composed
Of delegates to be chosen by that portion
of the people Of said State who are loyal
10 the United States, and no Others for
the purpose Of altering and amending the
CONSTITUTION of said State" 1t was Presi-
dent Johnson Who so late as October
last-when all shadow of overt resistance
to the Union had long since disappeared
insisted that it was not enough that
a State which had revOlted must recog-
niZe her Ordinance of Secession as null
and void from the beginning, and ratity
the Constitutional Amendment prohibit
ing Slavery evermore, but she must also
repudiate "every dollar of Indebtedness
created to aid in carrying on the Rebel
lion" It was he who ordered the dis
persiOn by military force of any legisla-
ture chosen under the Rebellion which
should assume power to make laws after
that rebellion had fallen. 1t was he who
referred to Congress all enquirers as to
the probability of Representatives from
the States lately in revolt being admit
ted to feats in either House, and suggest
ed that they should present their creden-
tials, not at the organization OF Congress,
but afterward. And finally, it was he,
and not Congress, who suggested to his
| Governor Sharkey of Mississippi, that,
"If you could extend the elective fran
/ chise to all persons of color who can
/ read the Constitution of the United States
| in English and write their names, and to
all persons of color who own real estate
| valued at not less then $3.50 and pay
| taxes thereon, you would completely dis
arm the adversary, and sset an exampl,
i that other States will follow"
IT, then, there be any controversy a:
1 to the right of the loyal States to exac
L conditions and require guarantees o
those which plunged madly into seces
sion and rebellion, the supporters re
spectfully of Andrew Johnson and o
Congress cannot be antagonist parties
20 nat contest, since their record places
them on the same side,
1t being thus agreed that the con
Is ditions of restoration, and guarantee
against future rebellion may be exacteC
Of the States lately in revolt, the righ
Of Congress to voice in prescribin.
those conditions and in shaping thos
guarantees is incontestible. Whether i
takes the shape of law or of a consti
tutional amendment, the action of Con
gress is vital. Even, if they were to b
settled by treaty, the ratification of tn
Senate, by two-thirds vote, would b
Indispensable. There is nothing in tn
federal constitution, nor in the nature O
the case, that countenances an Executiv
monopoly Of this power.
What then is the ground Of complain