Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-23
VOL. XX---NO. "A.

that need happen VIII De that b.
tuking the wrong instead of th
right passage, or even taking the righ
passage and avoiding the wrong one, tn
vessel may roll a little, and some bonest
capable and even deserving politician, states
man, President or Congressman nav b.
washed overheard. should be sorry 70
this, but if it cannot be helped it can b.
borne. If am one of the unfOrtunates. 10
no friend be concerned on that account A
honest, as good, as capable politieia ms
Congressman and Presidents will max
their appearance hereafter faster thai
needed, to command the ship as well an,
as wisely as any that have heretofore stake,
their hour upon deck, in the alterations o
the calm and tempsests that always attenC
poliotial reorganizations.
Nevertheless, although do not think W,
| are in crisis, the question to-day is WORTH
of deliberate examination and considera
ton. The subject before us is difference
of opinion that reveals itself but too clearly
between the President and Congress- Thl
| President, as we all see, is a man of decid
| ed convictions. The legislative leaders ar
trying not5tO coincide with him in opinion
| They have appealed to US outsiders, and VIZ
are to pronounce between them.
The speaker then went on to prove thai
there was no difference of Importance be-
tween the President and Congress, however
much IL might seem otherwise. He said both
have got the Union restored as originally
planned, as it should be, without slavery,
| secession or compromise. Not with freed
men and refugees abandoned to suffering
and persecution, but with the freedmen en-
ployed III productive, self-sIstaihing indus
try, and with the refugees under protection
Of law and order.
The President sees that it has come out
all right at last and he accepts the situation.
Congress, on the other hand, hesitates,
debates and doubts, not because il has not
come out right, but because they have not
Individually had their own way in bringing
it TO that happy termination. l apprehend
no serious difficulty, from the conviction
that there never was and never San be anv
successful process for the restoration of
union and harmony among the States, ex-
cept the one with which the President has
avowed himself satisfied.
Grant it, that the rebellion is dispersed,
ended and exhausted, dead even at the
root. hen il follows necessarily that the
States, sooner or later, must be organized
by loyal men in accordance with the change
in our fundamental law, and resume their
place in Congress All the rebel States but
Texas have done just that thing, and Texas
is doing the same as fast as possible The
President is in harmony with all the States
that were in rebellion, and the Executive
and Judicial Departments are rapidly re-
saming their functions.
Loyal representatives more or less for
these States are now standing at the doors
of Congress, and have been standing there
for three months, asking to be admitted to
seats which the disloy al representatives had
formerly left. Meanwhile Congress passes
law after law, imposes burden after bur
den, and duty after duty, upon the States
which, against their earnest desire, are left
unrepresentated. l feel sure that loyal
men from those now loyal States will sooner
or later be admitted into this Congress or
the next. When this is done the process of
restoration win be complete, for that is all
that seems needed TO be done.
The speaker thought territorial govern
ments for the seeded States were perfectly
This also was rejected by
Mr.. Lincoln. Say what you will, the States |
are already organized in perfect harmony
with our amended National Constitution |
and are desir0us of an earnest cooperation
with the Federal Government. 1t is impos-
sble to reduce States to a territorial condi- |
ton. Congress has had a Reconstruction |
composed of fifteen members,
who have stopped the wheels of legislation |
three months to enable them to submit a
plan different from that which is now on
have they given US?
One proposed amendment to the Csnsti-
tuition Is to compel excluded States to equal |
ize suffrage upon the penalty Of abridge- |
ment of representation. This was not |
plan of reconstruction, but obstruction |
The resolution which passed the House on |
Tuesday last, directly declares that loyal |
from loyal States shall not |
be admitted from loyal States until Congress |
shall pass law for that purpose, which |
law cannot be enacted with the Presidents |
approval, and which cannot be consistently |
gwen in view of the opinions he is known
to entertain. This resolution, then, is not |
a plan for reconstruction, but indefinite
and delay.
When the rebellion began we determ-
ined to humble the rebels. We have |
humbled them, and brought them back |
with humiliation and repentance, sueing |
for restoration. The popular voice was that
all the members of family, however prodi-
gal they had been, would be received.
These efforts at obstruction are impractical
bic, as I think, and vicious No State can
keep itself out of the Union, or keep itself
in a territorial condition under the Union.
the States which are in the Union can't
be taken or kept out of its limits. States
that are in the Union cannot keep any
States that are outside from coming into it,
Congress is -habitually inclined To this ex-
pertinent. 1t hesitate about Michigan and
Missouri, reeled and staggered over Texas
and California, and convulsed the nation
about Kansas. Yet they are all in the
Union, ali happy, all loyal.
How many committees of conference did
we have, how many joint resolutions deny
ing that Congress ever would consent TO the
admission of suchAunweleome intruders?
How many compromises securing guaran
tees for freedom and Tor slavery, were bro
ken and scattered when one after another
Of these States came in, as if by a headlong
thrust, and hurled by Almighty Providence,
who was determined that the people Of this
continent should not be many discordant
nations, but one united nation
A Joint committee Of fifteen in 1s49 sue
ceeded in excluding California for eight
months. until o majority of the nation
should compromise and silence forever the
debate on slavery. The compromise was
by its terms to be perpetual. The eompro-
mise of 1850 lasted Just four years and then
expired. giving place TO the now happily
mated adjustment of the slavery
question by the complete abrogation of that
institution.
When left Congress in 1851 committees
and conventions demanded stipulation that
fetters be put on New Mexico
Nevada and Colorado. You can
never keep States of this Union. Present
distrusts of future States or Of existing
States have no substantial ground. They
are begOtten of miserable fears and fac
tions II ever this thing of keeping out
States by joint resolutions Of Congress could
have had a chance Of permanent success
that time has passed away. No State has
ever been hindered in coming into the Un-
ion, except on the question OF African
bondage, which has gone to the dogs and
is surely finished. No State will
ever hereafter be hindered in coming into
the Union on grounds Of slavery.
1t is a grave error to suppose the tendency
to the Union have described has anything
alarming in it. A territory wants to be
State because tits a pleasant and good thing
TO possess the privileges Of State
would not keep State in territorial con-
dition any longer than was compelled.
In the beginning, practically every state
had sla.ery we abolished 1t IN some states
without disorder, and when slavery raised
itself in opposition to the government, we
DESTROYED it altogether. We have done all
this in ninety years without imperial gov
erument or consular territorial system, but
in and by equal States, presided over by
federal or restricted government.
The conflict of opinion between the Presl-
dent and Congress in reference to the Freed
mems Bureau is, in its consequences, COM
paratively unimportant and would excite
little interest if it stood alone. Both agree