The Portland daily press., 1866-02-26
Letter from the Federal Capital.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 1866.


To the Editor of the Press:
This has been a week of almost unparalleled
excitement. Monday was day more event
full and memorable, day OF darker presage
than has fallen upon US since that on which
Abraham Lincoln breathed his last During
the early hours of the afternoon, while Sena-
tor Yates Of Ill. was making noble and most
fearless plea for universal and impartial suf
frage, a message from the President. was an
nounced. Its contents were soon known
Those oracular responses which of late had
given the Union men in Congress SO much
uneasiness, the growing intimacy between the
President and sundry Democratic and even
copperhead politicians, may have lessened the
astonishment, but certainly did not abatc the
indignation and disgust with which that as
founding document was received. The Union
Senators hastily consulted together and were
generally prepared to vote on the bill imme-
diately, but an adjournment was finally effect
ed. -i-49g l7f sas
Tuesday morning brought scene OF such
anxiety and excitement as have seldom wit
messed. The galleries of the Senate were ear
ly crowded to the utmost, and the vestibules
in the rear of them were thronged with anx-
ious crowds utterly unable to get within or ey-
en- near the doors. Garrett Davis, whose pro-
slavery ideas have run to the very verge of lu-
macy, appeared as champion and spokesman
for the President. OF his rambling and dis
jointed harangue will only only quote one
sentence-a sentence of profound significance
even though it did come through, win not
say from him. "The aohite people of the South
are to be the oacners the colored people the
tillers of the soil. Such is their destiny" A
volume could not more exactly describe the
condition of serfdom and yillainage to which
the late shareholders are determined to reduce
the freedmen, if indeed it be right to call them
freedmen. Nor need speak of that noble,
that grand effort of Senator Trumbull, in
which he sifted the illogical reasonings, the
amazing assertions and assumptions of the We
to message till very little of them was left.--
Nor yet will dwell upon the final and humil-
iating failure of the bill, with its suggestive
incidents and instructive lessons to all who
would be truly and faithfully represented in
Congress. gitsig % trH4H q - so
But, surely it is something it is much, that
in this trying emergency five-sixths the I'm
ion Senators stood firm and resolute, and that
the House asserted its rights and dignity in a
manner not liable to be misunderstood. Nor
can believe that the spirit of the people will
fail to manifest itself in way that shall sup
port and strengthen their faithful representa-
tives in both branches of Congress. 4ia. -
The meeting called to indcrse the "Presi-
dents policy" in this city, was held on Thurs
day, and was of course numerously attended.
If the President is not already fully and ire
vocably decided upon his present course, he
might, one would suppose, be admonished by
the manifest effect of his recent act, and the
sort Of men it is bringing around him. be-
lieve the secessionists of Washington have not
been in such excellent spirits since their friends
in gray were beseiging Forts Lincoln and Stew
ems, and sending the boom Of their guns
through all these streets. I suppose no rebel
victory, real or pretended, with its revolving
| details of "Yanks" slaughtered in fabulous
thousands, ever drew from traitors Threats
such shouts of rejoichgs, as this act of Presi-
dent johnson. Every traitor who ever wore
grey from Lee downward, every demon that
starved and butchered our helpless prisoners,
every northern copperhead that gloated in Sc
cret over the news of disaster to the Union
cause, every Chicago conspirator who declared
the war a failure, plotted and labored night
and day to make it so,-who of all these will
not exult with joy unspeakable and hasten to
assure President johnson of his sympathy and
support? lacl iba 71ss 4. WIS.,
The objections of the President to the
Freedman's Bureau Bill are Of so fundamental
character that they seem to form complete
bar to any adequate legislation whatever for
the protection of the Freedmen. AL the coun-
try knows that Notwithstanding his previous
professions, the President has of late set him
self like rock against every attempt to grant
the negro the ballot, that wondrous weapon of
defence, which might help him to protect him
| self Now he plants himself, so far as can
see, just as squarely and resolutely in the way
of that national protection which the enlight-
ened and Christian sentiment of the country
is trying to throw around the late slave. Be-
cause "his condition Is not so exposed as mag
at first be Imagined" because his condition is
only not so bad as it might be, therefore the
President appears to be satisfied with it.
Homeless, landless, penniiess, ignorant, desti-
tute of every material aid and every moral
help, deprived of civil rights, nay even of that
poor protection which the selfish interest of
his late owner threw about him while yet a
chattel, the servant Of one master no longer
but the slave of any and every tyrant who
may be pleased to lord it over him, this is the
condition to which the President, this mod
ern "Moses," volunteers to lead his colored
charge. This condition in which can remain
only the name and shadow of liberty like a
cruel taunt and bitter mockery, this condition
is the reward which he offers to the valor that
filled Burnside's crater with sable dead, and
piled the bitches of Wagner with their dis
membered bodies; that on a hundred battle
fields poured out blood as rich and red as ever
flowed in Saxon veins for the defence of a
country and flag, which to us indeed had al
ways stood for all that is dear to man on earth,