Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-05-11
WHO ARE THE TRAITORss

There IS an immense effectati0n OF hOrr0
and disgust on the part of fanatics in ant
out Of the rump Of Congress at Presiden
Johnson's recent declaration that Messrrs
Sumner, Stevens, Philips, and their adhe
rents, are "traitors." We have thought tha
we could not do a better thing in th,
present crisis than to show from the recort
that this declaration of the Executive, SO far
from being the false and wild one which Il
Is alleged to be by the faction on whose lead
ers II has borne 30 hard, could not have been
qualified without sacrifice of the truth
We shall show, moreover, that Mr.. Johnsoni
speech of the 22d of February, so far as Il
relates to these men, is in perfect accordance
with his public declaratisss made before b,
received the Black Republican nomination
for the Vice-Presidency. We shall begin
with Mr.. Stevens. When the bill for the
acknowledgment of Virginia was before the
House Of Representatives, the leader of he
fanatics held this language:
~ will not stultify myself by supposeing
that we have any warrant in the Constitution
for this proceeding. This talk of restoring
the Union as il was and under the Consti.
tuition as It is, is one of the absurdities that
have heard repeated, until I have become
sick of 1t. There are many things which
make such an event impossible. The
Union never shall, with my consent, be res
tored under the Constitution as 1t is"
We might crowd our columns, IL we chose
with the repeated declarations Of Mr.. Sum.
ner, that be owedno'obedienc to the Consti.
ton, but we content ourselves with one
which is sufficiently explicit to serve as a
specimen of the rest:
"Let me say that the Constitution of the
United States, as understand it, exacts no
passive obedience, and no man, who is not
wholly lost to self-respect and ready to aban-
don the manhood which is shown in the
heaven-directed countenance, will voluntar-
lily aid in enforcing Judgment which in
his conscience, he solemnly believes to be
against the fundamental law. The whole
dogma Of passive obedience must be rejected;
whatever alias 1t may skulk whether in the
tyrannical usurpation Of King, Parliament,
or judicial tribunal"
Wendell Philips, the third "traitor" named
by President johnson, said in speech made
shortly after the beginning of the war:
"No man has right to be surprised al
this state of things. II is just what we Alb.
litionists and Disunionists have attempted to
bring about There is merit in the Republi.
can party. 1t is the first sectional party ever
organized in this country. 1t does not know
its own face, but calls itself national; but it
Is not national--it is sectional. The Repub.
lican party is party Of the North pledged
against the South"
Again, at Cincinnati, Mr.. Phillips de.
clared, with candor or shameless, as you ma,
please to call IL:
al have labored nineteen years to take
sixteen States out Of the Union"
When we were in the very midst of the
war; this same Mr.. Phillips said in public
speech:
"Thauk God for McC Clellan, for Cameron
thank God for defeat. With MAN for Pres
ident, we should have put down rebellion in
nineteen days, and left slavery where il
was"
It may be well TO add, in this place, some
extracts from the speeches and writings of the
prominet apologists and defenders Of the
'traitors" explicitly named by the President
Foremost among these is Mr.. Benjamin F.
Wade, who said, In 1850, referring to the
secession movements of the Southern lead
ers:
~ am not one of those who would ask
them to continue in such Union. II would
be doing violence to the platform of the
party to which belong. We have adopted
the old Declaration Of Independence as the
basis of our political movements, which de-
clares that men, when their Government
ceases to protect their rights--when it Is &C
subverted from the true purposes of govern
ment as to oppose them, have the right "a
recur to Fundamental. principles, and, If need
be, to destroy the Government under which
they live, and to erect on its ruins another
more conductive to their welfare. Ihold that
they have this right whenever they think
the contingency has come. You
caunot forcibly hold men in this Union, foI
the attempt to do so, it seems to me, would
subvert the first principles of the Govern
ment under which we live"
Fred. Douglass, under the auspices of Mr.
Chase, has recently undertaken to berate the
President for disloyalty.> The qualifications
Of this negro critic to sit in Judgment on
Mr.. johnson will be understood by single
sentence taken from a speech be made in
view iorN IN iooo'
"From this time forth, ] consecrate the Ia
DOTS oi my ile 70 .ne u,ssoias.ou oi .nu
onlon anu care NO. D wne,ns, snn,n ,"e 'o'' Sna'
come rom nea'eh VI non, neii
Mr.. William Lloyd Garrison has also taken
II upon himself 70 denounce the President as
the vilest Of traitors and has made a speech
IN wh,cn ,n's ,aea eooa'0u S,. wa.n evers em Gun
oeiisnlnen' =, Scut,uv, cur =, ,oxa .' '''''' anu
eAac''ng pa'flo' sa'u' III t''o'
I" have said, and say again, that in pro-
portion to the growth OF disunionism will be
the growth OF Republicanism. The Union
is lie. The American Union is an impos-
ture, and a covenant with death, and an