The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-12


another fight, they thought of nothing
but of the necessity of submission. In
tremOlOuS anxiety they awaited tho
, verdict of tho conquerOr. They expect
| ell nothing better than that wO should
dictate the terms of peace. Ii anybody
had told thCm thCm TINT we would not,
they would not have believed him.
/ They dreamed OF nothing but punish
mCnt, OEwholCsHlo hanging and CUntiS-
| cation; and the imposition of any
4 sort of government that would permit
them to live and to retain what thOy
Ind saved from tho disasters Oftho war,
would have been welcomed by them as
an act of grace and favor. Nothing np-
! Pcared to them moro natural than that
7 the participants in tho rebellion should
/ bS excluded from Office, influence and
| powCr-nMy, from the franchise even;
| ana that tho functions of government
should DO confined TO tho tried and
/ faithful friends of the national cause.
| Even negro suffrage, universal, unrC-
strictod, would then have boon accepted
AS one of the bitter but Irresistible con-
sequences of the war.
Tho first great opportunity was
thrown away, and the man who cheat
ed the mutton out of it has committed n
crime against the glory and happiness
of the American Republic which the
batteries of millions of SycOphuntS will
not bo sufficient to gloss over, and
which centuries of repentance cannot
wash out. [ApplnuSe.l And why was
the great opportunity thrown away?
President Johnson took the work of
reconstruction into his own hands, and
began to develop Il scheme of policy.
II" iSsued PrOclamNtiOns appointing
provisional governors for the rebel
States, and ordered them to call State
conventions. Was not tho work of re-
construction 20 be placed exclusively
into the hands of loyal men? OF course
it WIS; Andrew johnson had said 30
He had solcmnly declared TINT ii there
were but five thousand men OF tried
1 loyalty i'll IL State, theirs must he the
/ government.
/ But political power i'll the States nat
urHlly belongs to those who have the
/ right to Votc and to ne voted for. An
/ drew johnson began by prescribing the
! qualifications of voters. The loyal
| blacks were Ht once excluded from the
suffrage; the right of voting was to be
confined to the loyal whites. But who
I were the loyal whites? The President
I issued II proclamation of amnesty, and
/ dccrced that all participants in the re-
bellion should be regarded ns loyal
men if they would take the oath of nile-
glance, fourteen especially enumerated
I CluSScS excepted. Thus, while the bNl-
4 lot was withheld from the loyal blacks,
[ il was placed i'll the hands of large
/ majority OF those who had stood up
I against the Government of the Rcpub-
I lie. Then the President opened his
1 special pardon bank, and one nfter
I another tho leaders of the rebellion
were declared loyal, and enabled to
place themselves once more at the head
OF their,politicnl followers.
y child might have foreSeen the con-
( sequences. The true Union element
/ was everywhere helplcssly overwhelm-
ed Ivy rebel majoritics. The Conven-
+ uVNI I s1,nFt F.,1I S,,S- 81,
hands of those who had stood against
us i'll the civil war. The elective execu-
tive offices of the States were presently
exercised by the leaders i'll the rebel
; lion, and the whole machinery of the
State governments was restored to their
control.
/ Thus the reaction was fairly started.
/ 1t commenced when the President first
opened to the late rebels the road to
power, and gained in strength AS that
power was obtained.
In my official report l predicted that
I If the reactionHry movement i'll the
South be left unchecked it would result
in the introduction, by legislation, or, in
the absence of laws, by practical upDli-
HuCes, of some system of labor inter-
mediate between FREQ labor and slavery,
but having more of the attributes OF
the former. Has not my prediction
! been verified by fact? To be sure, the
President affects not to believe it, for it
/ is truth hardly recOmmcndntory of
( his policy. But do not ask the Presi-
4 dent to believe me. He himself testi-
ties to the truth of what have said by
his own nets. All over the South his
/ military officers, his agents acting un-
der his orders and by his authority,
have been busy for some time setting
inside and overruling State laws and
! judicial proceedings, because they were
too Glaringly Incompatible with the de-
cree of emancipation. 1t appears the
! President must, after all, have had an
inkling of what was going on. l bring
to the President the Presidents own
testimony. Will he Condesccnd to be-
lieve himself? or does he, perhaps.
know himself so well as to have no
faith in his own character for truth and
| vcrncity?
And what does all this prove? 1t
proves that the people lately in rebel
lion, as soon ns they saw their State
governments once more in their hands.
saw also chance to turn their power
into account in Il reactiOuury movement
against emancipation. 1t shows thnt
they were determined not to permit the
emancipated slave to become true
freeman, nor IL system of true free labor
to supplnnt that of slavery. 1t shows
that they used their power in Tint di-
reCtion as far as the General Govern
ment suffered them to go; and Heaven
anxious to keep up Appearances, suf-
fcrCd them to go far enough.
But the reaCtiOnnry movement did
not cOnfinC itself to the blacks; the
whites, too, came i'll for their share,
No sooner did the people lately in re-
bellion see the road to political power
reopened to them by the Presidents re-
construction policy than they Inalig-
nantly turned upon those Southern men
who had refused to eSpOuse tho cause of
the rebellion, and those NOrthcrners,
who during, and after the war imported
into the South their capital, intelligence,
enterprise, and civilization. You sec
the people lately in rebellion not only
not permitting the lOynliSts of the South
to control the power of government,
but refusing even to share Il with them,
Fidelity to the SOuth-that is, partici-
patton in the rebelliOn-has become nm
absolute requisite for political trust,
influence, and power identification
with the national cause n badge of dis
grace; and the tried lOynlists of the
South, the same men into whose hands
the President promised to place the
work of reconstruction, to the exclu-
sion of rebels, find themselves rudely
Ostracised from political life.
Nor does the reaction stop there.
Hardly had the Presidents policy had
time TO be understood when IL malig-
nant spirit of hostility began to follow
the Northern emigrunt in Hll the rela-
tiOns of life. Every man was spotted
who refused to sell his loynl principles
along with his calico; and the Southern
Union mon, in the same measure as
they had been faithful to the Govern
nent, were sneered mt, hOwled mt, spit
upon as traitors to tho Southern cause,
and soon found themselves tho outcasta
~ n LOT