The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-31
THE PENDING CANVASS.

Gen. Butler ON EhC Presidents Policy,
the New Orleans Murders, ANA the
philadelphia Convention.
We give fuller version of General
Butler's speech at Gloucester, Muss., of
which our telegraphic report of Monday
morning was only n synopsis. Passing
from preliminaries, the General pro-
ceeLcd as follows:
THE PRESIDENTS PLAN.
At the moment when the conquering
armies of the United States were sweep
ing over the land irresistibly, and when
the power of the Confederacy was being
fractured, and when their President
was fleeing and pursued by the cavalry
of the United States, at that moment,
in the spirit that starved our prisoners
at Libby, Belle Isle and AndersonVille,
they raised the assassin hand of Booth
against the great and good Lincoln, the
last crownIng infAmy of the war. And
that raised the Vice President of the
United States into power, and while
propose TO deal with all of his acts and
opinions with that respect due to any
man in high Office, it will yet be
necessary to examine those acts and
opinions. He then declared that trca-
son should be made odious and traitors
should be punished. That declaration
was made to every committee from
every State that visited him, and need
not tell this audience how that decIara-
ton thrilled every loyal heart. Every
man said, "Well, if we have lost Lin
coin, We have got johnson, and the
rebels will fare worse with him than
with Lincoln" He issued his procla-
mation for IA reward for the principal
conspirators. He refused to sanction
the terms of surrender by Sherman to
Johnston, and it will be quite material
for us for a moment to consider what
those terms We're. Gen. Sherman,
anxious, as he said, to paciticate the
country, agreed with Gen. Johnston
that If he would surrender, the people
OF the Confederate States should be re-
political, which they enjoyed be-
fore the war. That was one OF the
principal terms of the surrender. When
that surrender was known at Wash
! ingtOn, and the capitulatiOn consider
ed, 1t was at once repudiRted by every
loyal man. What was it we had been
lighting for? What had we gained if
! these terms were allowed? Andrew
Johnson issued an order requiring that
these terms of surrender should be set
aside. Why? Because it restored
these Rebels to those rights which lead
To part in the Government of the Uni
ted States and thus rendered nugatory
the war in which we have been engaged.
Mark this, because we want 10 see if
after all the present policy of tho Phila-
delPhia Convention is to be carried out,
we have not enacted the same terms OF
surrender. The Government of the
United States had the right 70 name
terms upon which the South should be
readmitted Othe Union, and they would
have been Instantly and engerly sub
BcTibed to had they been never so hard
"a TrI,
"A power for which there Is no warrant
in the Constitution, that no State should
come back until it passed tho COnsti-
lutiOnaI Amendment abOliShinR Slave
ry, and until it agreed to nnnuI and
make void its ordinances of Secession.
II those States, as is now claimed, had
all their rights in the Union, that is to
say, If South Carolina had the same
right as Mnssachusetts,n and If in exhib-
itlng that right-if Massachusetts men
and South Carolina men were bound to
march arm in arm for an exhibition
nnywhere-why did the President un-
dertake to put "A condition upon the
southern States of GeorgiH, Alabama,
hiSaisSippi and other Rebcllious
States? was saying that If at the mo-
Inent that President Johnson issued his
order that these States should not be
allowed to have any other than n mill
tary government until they passed GER
tain hctS-one of which was to nullify
the ordinance OF Secession, and another
to adopt the Constitutional amendment
nbolishing Slnvery-if at that time it
waS competent for mo To make thnt or
der, should put it that these States had
been in rcbellion-thGir rights had
been captured, and IL was for tho
United States to say upon whRt terms
they would take them back. Nowhere
In the Constitutions can safely chaI-
lenge any constitutional lawyer in the
country to put his finger upon passnge
anywhere which gives the President "a
right To say to IA State in the Union, do
this or do that, or don't do this or do
that, adopt this proposition or that pro-
position. President Johnson gave them
their orders as chief executive because
he recognized that those States that had
rehelled had IA different position In tho
country from tho loyal States. Let MO
repeat this, because upon this hangs
the whole question. ] ngrce if these