Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-10
THE SPLENDID OPPORTUNITIES
WASTED AT WASHINGTON.

good faith. We are not TO be considered response
Ole for the opinions eIpressedby correspondents.
THE SPLENDID Opportunities
WASTED AZ WASHINGTON.
Whilst the ultraists in Congress-as well as
those out Of it for that matter-are INDUCING
brave conclusions as to the manner in which
the President has ruined himself with the
people, the fact is undeniabIe that the latter,
through public meetings and otherwise, have
been fast coming to the rescue; dong what
was needed to convince his assailants that theY
have reckoned without their host. NOT WIN
out strong support also from some OF the
ablest and most influential papers OF the
North, public opinion is decidedly coming
around to consider his views in the Veto Mes
sage. well taken, and such as the nation must
finally abide by, if it would do ITSELF as well
the freedmen, justice in the long run.
OF course, it is a terrible thing to be hetero
dox, in the face of so loud and furious a
demonstration of hostility toward all who
stand by the doctrines enunciated by the
President; but then il is something to see. even
in the short time since this warfare was
opened. that those who in the outset made so
fierce an onslaught on the message are not
half as positive as they we're; that, indeed,
with the Freedmens Bureau wna55 il ;ss. tic
South and the country at large will at last get
on well enough.
For one, we are very we'll content to fight
the battles of free thought and freedom of
speech in the company in which we find our.
selves, for to say nothing of the majority of
the Presidents Cabinet along with himself
we know we have the masses of the colnmu-
nifty, the moderate men on our side, also.
Amongst those outspokcn journals which
like our own has committed the objectionable
sin in reiH%;esing to follow the lead of a trio of
mischievous ultras, ,%"a would instance the
Springfield Mass Rep"Jtic0T.ss, which despite
the most savage attacks upon its character a.
Union print, has Sturdily and ably stood up
for the right. Approaching fully and properly
the real situation, it, like the Philadelphia
North american, the Cincinnati Commercial,
and others we might name, has pointedly re-
buked that folly, which calling on the beaten
States to be loyal, does all that it is possible
to discourage loyalty; widening that breach
they pretend a desire to see closed Let the
following be carefully scanned by those who
think they know better than tbe President
what is necdfal to bring about a thorough re-
construction of the South:
From the Springfield Republican.
"a Southern man may be loyal without going into
"ecstacies of delight over Thad Steyenss projects for
"disfranchising the white men of the South and con-
fscating their property. To require the South thus
ito kiss the rod that smitc as evidence of loyalty
is to require what human nature in its most meek
sand gracious state has never achieved 1t is very
"nuch like the old fashioned test applied to converts
they could not be saved till they wcre willing to
she damned. And yet this is the gst of great deal
'of the prevalent denunciati0n of the South The
arcles copied from Southern papers as evidence of
6isoyaty chiefly diatribes against the Northern
s'extremists who seek the further punishment and
Humiliation of the South. The same papers avow
'their earnest purpose to obey the Constitution and
Saws. to accept all the results of the war and to
conduct in every respect good citizens of the
United States Polards low abuse of the Virginia
women who dance with Union officers is provoking
enough. but it is not treason and the suppression of
This Richmond sEran,iHer mistake that the
President did well to correct What the Govern
en needs to do in the South is not to suppress dis
'loya speech and writing. but TO maintain freedom
of speech and the press for all. loyal and disoya
There. no such freedom in the South while
slavery existed. 1t has come in with emancipation
sand must be protected. wherever imperied by the
'old spirit of caste and sectional hatred.
1.-THE same thing is true of the prejudice against
colored men. 1t cannot be cured by act of Congress
'Time, education the social changes wrought by
Freedom will eventually overcome it. Meanwhile
Government must protect all classes of citizens in
their rights, and haYingdon this, its proper work
'is done. If it attempts direct interference with
liberty of opinion it will only increase the evil IL
'seeks to remedy. The freedmen are now generally
sat work on liberal wages, thousands of schools are
educating their children and if the process of ame-
liberation is allowed to go shall see great re-
suits, and no influence will be able to exclude the
freedmen from such position their improved
character will command
1T would be we'll flour impatient reiormars under
STOOD better the real situation at the South if they
could meet with intelligent Southern men and read
''the leading Southern papers Already the attempt
$40 revive the old hatred of the South and to inau-
"gurate hostile has made it impossible that
"there shall be Republican party in the reclaimed
States for long time to come, and has nearly de-
"sroyed that party in the border States. The Sena-
'tors from West Virginia are denounced for voting
against the Freedmen's Bureau BILL but it i'm
possible for them to do otherwise; and it is evident
shat if the lead of such extremists Stevens fol-
flowed the Republicans must make up their minds
ITO get along without party in any Southern or
'berder State. and with half the Western and CEN
trail States in doubt to say the least. Indeed there
is no certainty that New England can be car
'ried unbroken for the Stevens policy"
Ii the whole story Of the rank folly in
obliged at Washington of late, is not told in
this outspoken remonStrance, then we know
not the force of language when dealing with
public abuses Busy from day to day in con-
struchng Procustean beds for whatever and
whoever comes along, the Congressional lead
ers are setting US back years, in the need that
exists for building up II love for the Union,
and in fostering those better feelings, which,
with the close OF the war; were beginning to
be felt in the imperative desire for restoring
those old relationships which made the Union
IN the past what it was.
This cannot continue, full surely, and not
politically-any set of men guilty of
such folly and such malignancy, such an utter
disregard of the real wants Of the nation
Had the politicians absolutely stood aside
from the beginning in these matters could
they have been, by some process, left out alto
gether in consulting upon plans for recon-
struction, leaving to the Lieutenant General
the gradual withdrawal of his troops as the
case might have appeared to warrant it: and
allowed the mercantile and trading commu-
nifty to have done the rest, and we believe that
to-day the nation would have 'een an hundred
Hold nearer reconstruction, the Union an hun
dred fold more firmly established in the hearts
of all. A railroad bill or steamboat bill for
Lines of communication Just restored, are bet
ter as programmes to bind us together than all
the "Bills' or "Resolutions'' Stevens and
Sumner have ever introduced into their res
pective Houses, or could introduce, with their
tanatical temperaments, if they were to beat
the air for centuries; and we only hope that
slow as is the nation to reckon with its public
disturbers, it may soon see this, and rebuke
them from the places they cumber, the seats