The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-09-20

8
and mutilation of Sheridan's dispatches
need no characterization l do not at
tribute this act to him Yet it was OF
such criminal and disgraceful nature
! that not to clear himself of it by the eN-
posure and rebuke of the offending party,
amounted to collision with crime after
/ the fact. What shall say of the speech
es made in the wide recent circuit OF the
/ Executive? Are these the ways of re-
coneiliation?
1et Mr.. johnson is TO be our President
/ for nearly three years to come, clothed
with a power which belongs to few
thrones. Besides the honor which the
people owe to him as the Chief Magis-
i trate, we must, as Christian citizens,
credit him with his real excellences-
! original horror of secession, his bold
resistance to treaehery, his persistent
and self-denying heroism in the long
dark days of Tennessee. We must not
forget that he has jealously resisted .
Capitalization of power IN the Federal
Government, that he has sought to dig
Nifty and secure true State Rights, that
he has maintained simplicity of manners
and true love of the common people
1t is our duty, likewise, to forestall and
/
but faithful criticism of his errors on the
one hand. and by sympathy and kind
ness on the other, those dangers to which
he is liable under attacks which he is
peculiarly unable to bear with calmness,
and those dangers of evil counselors,
which more and more gravitate toward
him. So long as it was possible, have
been silent upon Mr.. Johnson 5 faults,
and now speak so plainly, only lest
seem to approve or cloak them.
And now allow me to express some
surprise at the turn which the public
mind has taken on my letter. 1 l had
never before spoken my sentiments | can
see how friends might now misapprehend
my position. But for a year past have
been advocating the very principles of
the Cleveland letter in all the chief Eas-
tern cities-in Boston, Portland, Spring
field, Albany, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo,
Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and
Brooklyn, (at the Academy of Music,
last winter.) These views were report
ed, discussed, agreed to or differed from,
praised and blamed abundantly. But no
one thought or at least said. that l re
member, that had forsaken the Repub-
lican party, or had turned my back upon
the freedmen. My recent letter but con-
denses those views which for twelve
months l have been earnestly engaged
in urging upon the attention of the com
munity. l am not surprised that men
dissent. But this sudden CONSERVATION,
and this late discovery of the nature of
my opinions, seem sufficiently surprising.
l could not ask a better service than the
reprinting of that sermon of last Octo-
Der, which first brought upon me the
criticisms of the Tribune and the Lndepefa-
dent
1 foresaw that, in the probable con
dition of parties and the country, we
could not carry suffrage for the freed
men by immediate political action
When the ablest and most radical Con
gress of our history came together they
refused to give suffrage to negroes even
in the District of Columbia; and only in
an indirect way-not as political right,
but as the hoped for result of political
selfishness, did they provide for it by an
amendment of the Constitution. What
was prcphesy with me. Congress has
made history Relinquishing political
instruments for gaining the full enfran-
chisement of men, / instantly turned to
moral means, and enunciatlng the broad
est doctrine of manhood suffrage, L gave
the widest latitude TO that, advocating
the rights Of black and white, of men
and women. to VIC te. If any man las
labored more openly Ion a broader prin
ciple, and with more assiduity, do not
know him. More ability may have been
shown, but not more directness of pur-
pose, nor undertaking consistency.
I attribute the recent misunderstand-
ing, in part, to the greater excitement
which now exists, to The narrowing of the
issues, and to the extreme exacerbation
which Mr.. Johnson $ extraordinary and
injudicious speeches have produced. To.
this may be added my Known indispo
sition to join in criticism upon the Presi
dent, and the fact that urged a modified
form of that policy which he, unfortu-
nately for its success, holds.
Upon Mr.. Johnson's accession I was
supremely impressed with the conviction
that the whole problem of reeonstruc-
ton would practically pivot on the har=
mony of Mr.. johnson and Congress.
With that we could have secured every
guarantee and every amendment of the
Constitution. Had a united Government
said to the South, promptly backed up,
as it would have been, by the united
North, with slavery we must take out
of the Constitution whatever slavery put
in, and put in whatever slavery for its
own supportleft out there can scarcely
be a doubt that long before this the
question would have been settled, the
basis of representation ID the South con-
formed to that in the North, and the
principle, the most fundamen and inn
portant of all, might have been estab-
lished in the Constitution, viz: that man.
hood and full citizenship are identical.
Such great changes required two things,
viz: PRoMPrNEss AND UNITY OF CoUN-
Sells. To secure these bent my whole
strength urged the purgation Of the
Constitution Ireasoned against mutual
distrust, and plead for Unity of Gov
ernmental action. did all that 1 knew
how TO do 70 confirm the President in
his warbegotten zeal against slavery: to
prevent such suspicious and ordinations
as would tend to revive in his mind old
prejudices, and bring on relapse into
his former hatred of Northern fanatics.
/ thought I understood bis nature and