Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-11-01

4 r.
mand almost miraculous.
Andrew johnson, however, such as he il
in heart, intellect, will, and speech, is the
I recognized leacer OF his party, and demands
that the great mass of his partisans shall
serve him, not merely by prostration Of
body, but by pcostration of mind 1t is the
hard duty Of Lis more intimate associates
to translate his broken utterance from Andl
J0hnsOnese into constitutional phrase, tc
give these versions some show Of logical
arrangement, and to carry out as best they
may, their own objects, while protesting
boundlcss devotion to his. By sophsti-
cal process Of developing his rude notions,
they often lead him 10 conclusions which he
had not foreseen, but which they induce him
to make his own, not by fruitess effort to
quicken his mind into following the steps
OF their reasoning, but by stimulating his
passions to tie point Of adopting its re-
suits They thus become parasites in ord
er that they may become powers, and their
interests make them particularly ruthless
IN thelg dealings with their masters con-
slstency Their relation to him, if they
would bluntly express it, might be indica-
ted III this brief formula I'VE will adore
yon in order that You may obey u.s."
The trouble with these politicians is, that
they cannot tie the Presidents tongue as
they tied the tongues Of the eminent per-
sonages they invited from all portions of
the country to keep silent at their great
convention at Philadelphia. That conven-
ton was masterpiece of cunning politi-
Cal management but it's address and reso-
lutions were hardly laid at Mr.. Johnson's
feet, when, III his exultation, he blurted out
that unfortunate remark about ga body
called, or which assumed to be, the Con-
gress Of the United States" which, it ap-
pears, &" we have seen hanging on the verge
OF the Government" Now all this was in
the address Of the convention, but it was
not 50 brutally worded, nor so calculated
to appal those timid supporters of the John
son party who thought, in their innocence,
that the object Of the Philadelphia meeting
was to heal the wounds of civil war, and
not to lay down programme by which it
might be reopened. Turning, then, from
Mr.. johnson to the manifesto of his polti-
cal supporters, let us see what additions it
makes to political wisdom, and what guar
antees 1t affords for future peace. We
shall not discriminate between insurgent
States and individual insurgents, because,
when individual insurgents are so over
whelmingly strong that they carry their
States with them, or when States are SO
overwhelmlngly strong that they force in
diVlduaiS to be insurgents, it appears to be
needless. The terms are often used inter
changeably in the address, for the conven-
ton was so largely composed of individual
insurgents that it was important to vary a
little the charge that they usurped State
powers with the qualification that they
obeyed the powers they usurped. At the
South, individual insurgents constitute the
State when they determine to rebel, and
obey it when they desire to be pardoned.
An identical thing cannot be altered by
giving it two names.
The principle which runs through the
Philadelphia address is that insurgent
States recover their former rights under
the Constitution by the mere fact of sub
mission. This Is equivalent to saying that
lnsurgent States incurred no guilt in rebel
hon. Bat States cannot become insurgent
unless the authorities Of such States com
NIT perjury and treason, and their people
become rebels and public enemies. Per-
jury, treason, and rebellion are commonly
held TO be crimes and who ever heard be-
fore that criminals were restored to all the
rights Of honest citizens by the mere fact
of their arrest?
The doctrine, moreover is a worse here
sy than that of secession for secession
implies that seeded States, being out of
the Union, can plainly only be brought back
by conquest and on such terms as the vic
tors may choose to impose No candid
Southern rebel who believes that his State
seeded and that he acted under compe-
tent authority when he took up arms against
the United States, can have the ef1rontery
to affirm that he had inherent rights of cit
izenship in the foreign country" against
which he plotted and fought for four years
The so-calIed right of secession was
claimed by the South as constitutional
right, to be peaceably exercised but itpass-
ed into the broader and more generally in
telligiblo fright" of revolution when it
had to be sustained by war and the con-
ditiOn Of a defeated revOlntionist is certain
ly not that Of qualified voter in the ma
ti0n against which he revolted. But if in
surgent States recover their forTner rights
and privileges when they submit to euperi-
or force, there is no reason why armed re-
DCllioi oIOAlu AoI Dc dS common as local
discomfort. We have on this principle sac
rificed thirty-five hundred millions of dol,
lars and three hundred thousand lives, only
to bring the insurgent States into just those
practical relations to the Union which
will enable us 10 sacrifice thirty-fve hun
dred millions of dollars more and three
hundred thousand more lives, when it suits
the passions and caprices of those States
to rebel again. Whatever they may do in
the way Of disturbing the peace of the
country, they can never, it seems, forfeit
their rights and privileges under the Con-
stitutiOn. Even if everybody was posi-
lively certain that there would be new
rebellion in ten years, unless conditions of
representation were exacted of the South
we still, according to the doctrine of the
JohnsOnian jurists, would be constitutional
ly impOtent to exact them, because insur-
gent States recover unconditional rights
to representation by the mere fact of their
submitting to the power they can no long
er resist. The acceptance of this principle
would make insurrection the chronic dis
ease of our political system. War would
follow war, until nearly all the wealth OF
the country was squandered, and nearly all
the inhabitants exterminated. Mr. John
sons prophetic vision of that Paradise of
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