The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-27


Beecher on tho Veto.
Henry Ward Beecher delivered a
lecture in Brooklyn on last Tuesday.
We make the following extracts:
.sThere is a Freedmen Bureau.
There was In Congress "a bill for the
more efficient organization of it. All
mems hearts have been to-day ex-
cited by the tidings that that Freed.
mems Bureau bill has been vetoed
by the President. {Some hisses.) I
am sorry that he felt it to be his duty
to veto it, and am sorry that the
bill was so drawn that he ,ras obliged
to feel It to be his duty 10 ceso H.
But, mark! this is not vetoing q
bureau, nor an amended or re-organ-
lied bureau, but only that particular
form of bureau which that bill con-
tained It does not commit the Pre-
sident against any proper department
-sst,Iii I'M MS ii tSeFing to- the blacks through
out, the South. We, know, on the
other hand, that ne is in favor of
such q bureau. And I confess that
on reading his message, it has left
profound impression upon my mind
that he urges most serious and weighty
reasons why, in the form in which it
went before hin, it should notshave
become the law of the land. But I
believe and am sure that no man in
this land is more. in favor of some
Legislation that shall amount to an
efficient protection for the black man
than President johnson himself
applause Men who have know
ledge Of the freedmen may be warped
by their sympathy and by their gene
rous sentiments so as not we'll to con-
slider that while 1egislating to save
the freedmen it may be at the expense
of those. laws and those instruments
in which his very safety itself resides;
and if they are carried past the point
of moderation, ii IS aceu there should
be opportunity for reconstruction"
The words in italics are clear ex-
preston of Beecher's opinion, that
the bill was very Objectionable. We
feel confident from this and other
indications, that the President will Sc
cure the support Of two-thirds of the
people even of the North on this.is-
sue between himself and the radicals.
Again, says Mr.. Beecher:
''Do you suppose that you will
always have a President like Mr..
Johnson? But I am mistaken in my
Judgment if there has, since the ear
lest and best days of our Presidency,
been man more honest, more sin
gle-minded for liberty, who, without
bias of the feelings or of the heart,
without bias of any kind, endeavored
to do that which he thought best for
the interests of the country, and the
whole country Applause. Notan-
other man.
81 hold it would be better that the
States should be brought into the
Union tomorrow, every one of them.
And in this regard allow me to say
that I cannot go with either the Pre-
sident or Congress. Iwould bring all
in at once. They mean to keep them
all out at once. daughter. They
would let in q part, and let the rest
wait and see how they would Like it. :"
Beecher is a representative man.
| He speaks the thoughts Of the pro-
perty-holders of the North.
In relation to the South and the
| Southern people, he has the following
remarks:
l. s'But then you say, we want qua
rantees that they won't meddle with
and dishonor the public debt I do
not doubt that they would like to do
it. I Judge it from my own feelings
II I were in their place / should hate
to be taxed to pay for whipping my
self We ought not to expect that
this morsel should be rolled as pc
culiar luxury under their tongue.
The bonds of the United States are
the basis of the national banks, and
all the banking business of these
United States are the guarantee that
the national honor is to be preserved.
Do you want anything more than
that? (Applause.) Formerly .he
South had an interest and an ambi-
ton in breaking away and in putting
herself in an antagonism to the Ma
tional Government. Her statesmen
were drunk with vanity-her reasons
we're wild in their political theories.
They believed that slavery, I do not
doubt it, was the best foundation on
which to build States, and they
meant to build up a power in the
South such as the world had never
seen. They began by taxing labor as
the North by honoring labor; they
began by building up with despised
workman 40 tho North did until, I, ~,