Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-09-12

all be submitted to Congress for its action.
On the 29th of May, he published his
amnesty proclamation, and on the same
day appointed W. W. Holden Provision
al Governor of North Carolina. In that
letter of appointment he declared that
= whereas "the Constitution of the United
States declares that the United States
shall guarantee to every State in the
Union republican form of government:
and whereas the rebellion has IN lie
revolutionary progress deprived the people Of
North Carolina of all ciVI government" he
therefore appointed w. W. Holden Pro
visional Governor, with authority to ex-
ercise within the limits of said State all
the powers necessary and proper to ena-
bic the loyal people of North Carolina to
restore said State. to its constitutional
relations to the Federal Government,
and to present such a republican form of
State government as will entitle the State
to the guaranty of the United States
therefor, and its people to the protection
of the United States" On the same
terms seven other Governors were ap-
pointed. On the 18th day of September
the Secretary of State, by direction of
the President, wrote to Gov. Marvin, of
/ Florida, a letter, which concluded in
these words:
at must, holgever, be distinctly understood
that the restoration to l0hich your proclaim ztioR
refers i0W Be subject 10 The decision of Con-
gress."
But the confidence of the people did
not rest solely upon the fact that the
| President held that all his work was pro-
visional, and must be referred to Congress
for its final settlement. Their confidence
was still further strengthened by his re-
peated official declarations that guaran-
tees must be demanded of the rebel
States before they should be restored to
/ their practical relations to the Union
On the 2Sth of October the Secretary of
State wrote to the Provisional Governor
of Georgia as follows:
"The President of the United States
cannot recognize the people of any State as
having resumed the relations of loyalty to
the Union that admits as legal, obligs-
tions contracted or debts created in their
name to promote the war of the rebel.
, lion"
) On the 1st day of November he wrote
r to the Provisional Governor of Florids
} the following:
3 "Your letter of October 7th was receiy
: ed and submitted to the President. HI
! is gratifed with the favorable progress to
f ward reorganization in Florida, anC
: directs me to say that he regards the rat
ifcstion by the Legislature of the Con
, gressional amendment of the Constitu
} ton of the United States as indispensa
bic to a successful restoration of the trut
legal relations between Florida and tn,
other States, and equally indispensable,
} to the return of peace and harmony
throughout the republic"
On the 9th of November he wrote tC
the Provisional Governor of South Caro-
lima in these words: ..l
"Your dispatch to the President ot
Nov. 4th has been received. He is not
entirely satisfied with the explanation il
/ contains He deems necessary the pas
sage of adequate ordinances declaring
that all insurrectionary proceedings in
the State we're unlawful and void ab i1i-
to-"
Here he had plainly demanded at least
three conditions az indispensable to res
toration.
Ist. That the rebel States should de
clare their ordinances of secession void ab
iliho. ..-.... .-,---..s.
I'd. That they should ratify the consti-
| tutional amendment abolishing slavery.
Sd. That they should repudiate the
rebel debt and that thei: whole conduct
on the premises should be referred to
| Congress for its action.
But during themonths of autumn there
were rumoVE in the air which troubled
the peace of patriotic citizens. 1t was
whispered that the President was going
over to our political enemies. II was OBJ
served that the tone of the Democratic
and rebel press had wonderfully changed
toward him.
From the beginning of the war till the
summer of 1865, Southern traitors and
Northern Democrats had We'd with each
other in the denunciation of his public
acts-of his political and private charae-
ter. The rebels had all along denounced
him az a renegade, a traitor to his coun-
try, and low born boor; while Northern
Democratic Journals, like the New York
World, had denounced him as turncoat,
a tyrant, a boorish tailor, a drunken
brute-less respectable than Nero's horse.
But as the fall elections of 1865 ap-
prosched, they began to speak of him as
an old fashioned Democrat, who had not
forgotten the lessons of his youth, and
who would vet turn his back upon the
Union party and return to the embrace
of his former friends. The people were
alarmed at these manifestations, but
were somewhat reassured by the declara-
tons Of the President made to MAJ. Geo.
L. Stearns on the Sd of October, when he
said: "The power of those persons who
made the attempt at rebellion has been
crushed, and now we want to reconstruct
\ the State Governments and have the
1 i .
are Frustrated, laid out on the ground,
and they must be taken up and adapted
to the progress of events.
We must not be too much IN hurry. II
is better to let them reconstruct them
selves than to force them into 1t; Tor Il
they go wrong, the power IS IN our hands
The power is in our hands and we can
check them in any stage to the end' an
oblige them to correct their errors.
! ~ In Tennessee l would try to IN
troduce negro suffrage; first, those VINO
have served in the army; those who could
read and write, and perhaps a properly
\ qualification for others, say S2OO or SOU
When Congress met in December last
there was great anxiety and no little
alarm. From the first hour of the session
the little iunto of rebel sympathizers,
/ Us the OCL1OCAatAO Po1-y -
gress, became the eulogIsts and defenders
of the President. Their denunciations OF
the Union party, re-echoed familisrly as
of old through the halls of the Cap;tol;
but their Gems lres were turned to praises
their curses to blessings, when they spoke
of the President elected by the Union
party.
But even then we did not lose all our
faith in Andrew johnson. His annual
message, though carefully worded, reiter-
ated many of his former declarations,
and the most radical men in Congress
thanked him and took new courage.
In that message he said: 1T is not too
much to ask in the name of the whole
people, that on the one side, the plan of
restoration shall proceed in conformity
with willingness to cast the disorders of
the past into oblivion; and that, on the
other, evidence of sincerity in the future
maintenance of the Union shall oe put