Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-01
ssVVhO Would Defeat and Destroy
the NJmiOm EDurtY p"

the assembling of Congress in December
last. There was a time when the rivalship
between parties grew out of questions per-
talnlng to commerce, domestic manufac-
tures, finance and internal improvements
Both parties based their advocacy Of ana
opposition to measures involving these
questions upon the needs and the good OF
the country. Measures that contributed TO
the prosperity and happiness of the people
were considered worthy objects to engage
the ablest intellects of the country. so lar
as the dominant party is concerned' 1t $50
no longer. "How can our party De per-
petuated?" is with them the primary ana
paramount question. The question, "HoW
can the interest of the country be Dest
promoted ?" is regarded as simply suoorul-
nate and incidental. Nothing more. The
countless constitutional amendments VhaC
have been introduced into Congress- anu
the bill few days ago introduced oy Mr'
STEVENS putting the Southern whites on
the footing of Aliens, who can not be nat
uralized, and elevating the Southern
Negroes to political equality with
the Northern Whites, contemplate one
and the same object though different
in phraseology perpetuation OF
the Republican party. Among some
Republican journals an animated discus
sion is now in progress as to "Who would
Defeat and Destroy the Union Party y
This is a humiliating spectacle. Six months
ago the President called the attention
of Congress to the Importance of clinching
the work of pacification which he had
prosecuted so successfully by permitting
the Southern States to resume their right OF
Representation which in a spirit of crimi-
nal foolhardiness they Of their own accord
discontinued. Whether the President in
this recommendation was influenced by the
desire of perpenating the Republican par
ty or only by his anxiety to preserve and
strengthen the Union is immaterial. Had
the Republicans in Congress promptly
acted upon his suggestion there can be no
doubt but the Republican party would
have been strengthened in section where
they needed strength. By Republican
journals it is said, President JoHNsoNs
"policy" in the South has endeared that
section of the Union to him, the people
thereof looking upon him with deep afiec-
ton. Upon all who give to that policy" an
ungrudging support, they feel satisfaction
in bestowing commendation to the ex-
tremest degree.
Unquestionably, then, the Southern peo-
pie would, with promptness and sincerity,
have bestowed that commentator upon
the Republicans in Congress, had they, by
the exercise of generous magnanimity
and broad craftsmanship, made the Presi-
dents policy their policy. Instead OF do
ing this, they allowed passion and malevo-
lence to lead them into the support OF
measures that chilled the friendly feeling
that began to spring up in the South under
the wise and humane licy of the Presi-
dent. He had laid the foundation for
lasting peace and brotherhood Of feeling
such as existed before the Abolitionists
commenced their perniciousintermeddling'
He induced the South, under an implied
promise of general amnesty and their res
toration to their civil and political rights,
to tear up by the roots every vestige OF
slavery, and to make such disposition of the
debt contracted in their Quixotic effort to
establish Southern Confederacy, that its
payment could not be secured from either
State or Federal Government. 1t was
draft upon the Southern people, in the cs-
timation of the Republican politicians, so
humiliating that they would have scornful-
ly protested it. They wanted them to
protest it, so that they would be furnished
a pretext to deny them any participation in
the Federal Government, because of their
alleged diabolical and unregenerated ma
ture, begotten in the vain attempt to found
government where they imagined they
would enjoy more tranquility, more politi-
cal freedom and more happiness. 1t was
the success of a party organized on an idea
of opposition to their institution of Negro
Slavery that threw them into secession
The Conservative men of the South and the
Democratic party besought the successful
party, to avert secession of any kind, either
peaceably or by the force of arms, to give
to the South satisfactory guarantee that
they would not intermeddle with slavery,
now that they were about to take the con-
troll of the Federal Government. Such
guarantee was refused absolutely.
The Republican politicians know well
l., Il Is1
posed to again take up arms; they know
full well that the Southern people are will
ing to abide in the Union dutifully and as
good citizens. About this they have no
misgivings; they have no idea that the
South will ever re-enact slavery or treat
the freed Negroes with inhumanity or
wrongfully; they have no apprehension
that either State Legislature or the Fed
eral Government will ever be called upon
to pay any part of what is called "the Rebel
Debt;" nor do they fear Reputation of the
Federal public debt. Their alleged fears
touching these things is nothing but con-
temptible pretense. What they do fear is,
that If the Southern States are allowed to
resume their right of Representation and
TO vote for President and Vice President
they will act with the Democratic party,
and that thereby the so-called "iUnion
Party" will be defeated and destroyed
Therefore, their legislation looking to the
v-kr n har