The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-10-04

FELLOW. CITIZENS: Very grave differ
ences having arisen between your imme
diate Representatives in Congress ane
the President, who owes his position t.
your votes, we are impelled to ask youl
attention thereto, and to suggest the du
ties to your country which they rendel
imperative .is -earso H-- a
We shall avoid the use of hard words
OF these there have already been toe
4 many. And that the matters in issu.
may be brought within the narrowes,
lcompass. let US first eliminate from the
controversy all that has already beer
settled or has never been in dispute.
The Republic has been desperately as
sailed from within, and its very existence
seriously imperiled. Thirteen States
we're claimed as having withdrawn from
the Union, and were represented fol
years in hostile Congress, meeting al
Richmond. Ten of these States were,
for time, wholly in the power of hos
tile Confederacy, the other three partial
I
were repeatedly and formidahly invaded
/ by rebel armies, which were only expelled
after obstinate and bloody battles
| Through four years Of arduous, desper-
Confederacy withstood those of the
| Union. Agents of that Confederacy
traversed the civilized world, seeking al
lies in their war against the Republic, and
inciting the rapacious and unprincipled
| 10 fit out armed corsairs 20 prey upon her
commerce. By State authority, and in
the perverted names of patriotism and
loyalty, hundreds of thousands of our
countrymen we're iconscripted into rebel
armies and made to fight desperately for
our national disruption and ruin. And
though, by the blessing Of God and the
valor and corstancy Of our loyal people,
the rebellion was finally and utterly
crushed, it did not succumb until it had
caus ed the destruction of more than half
million of precious human lives. not to
speak of property to the value of at
least fifty millions 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-acquired or had never for
Union, including that of representation
in Congress-, stands in pointed antagon-
~, fS of
and TO those of the acting President. 1t
was the Executive alone who, after the
rebellion was no more, appointed Pro-
yisional Governors for the now submis
sive, unarmed Southern States, on the
assumption that the rebellion had been
Revolutionary" and had deprived the
people under its sway of all civil govern
ment, and who required the assembling
of "a convention, composed of dele
yates to be chosen by that portion of the
oeople of said State who are loyal to
The United States, and no others, for the
purpose of altering and amending the
Constitution of said State" 1t was Pres
dent johnson who, so late as October
| ,ast-when all shadow Of overt resist
mce to the Union had long since disap-
/ peared-insisted that it was not enough
| shat a State which had revolted must
recognize her ordinance of secession as
null and void from the beginning, and
4 ratify the constitutional amendment pro
hibiting slavery evermore, but she must
also repudiate s'every dollar OF indebt
edness created to aid in carrying on the
rebellion. 1t was he who ordered the
+ dispersion by military force of any Leg
islatnre chosen under the rebellion whief
should assume power to make laws aftel
that rebellion had fallen. II was he wht
referred to Con gress all inquiries as t.
the probability of representatives iron
I the States lately in revolt being idmltte'
to seats in either house, and suggeste'
that they should present their credentias
Fnot at the organization of Congress, ou
afterward And finally, it was he, an
not Congress, who suggested to his Gov
ernor Sharkey, of Mississippi, that
IF you could extend the elective fran
chise to all persons of color who can rea
the Constitution of the United States
English and write their names, and to a
persons of color who own real estate
valued at not less than $3.50 and pa
taxes thereon, you would completely di:
arm the adversary. and set an exampl
that other States will follow"
II. then, there be any controversy
to the right of the loyal States to exa'
conditions and require guarantees {
those who plunged madly into secessio
and rebellion. the supporters respectivei
of Andrew johnson and of Congre.
can not be antagonistie parties to tn
= Econtest, since their record places the
on the same side
1t being thus agreed that conditions
restoration and guarantees against futu
rebellion may be exaeted of the Stat
J lately in revolt, the right of Congress
D voice in prescribing those condition