The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-18
'd) ANDRRw JoHNsoN,

We did not set out in this article
to prove the President an advocate of
negro suffrage. We have no charge to
make against him on that head save
his gross inconsistency. Still we desire
his apologists, especially the unscrupu-
lous sheet in this city, who daily de-
fame the late Philadelphia Convention
as negro suffrage advocates, to recon
Gle their support of the President with
their defamation of the Convention. Is
it Conservative" in the President to use
his influences to establish negro suffrage
in Mississippi, aud other Southern
States, and yet t'radieal,'' "revolu-
tIohary,'' and wicked, - DC, for south
ern delegates in Convention assem-
bled to urge their influence in the
same direction. We want an ex-
PLANTATION from the apologies of
the President in this matter. Mr.. john
son has over and over again committed
himself to negro suffrage. In what re-
spect, Them is he less of q Jaeobin,'
less dangerous, . less ''Wild and wick
ed y than the Radicals3 Is it not MAX
ing a distinction where there is no
difference for professed admirers of the
President to beslobber him with praise
while they bespatter Radicals with inn
precautions?
The point. however, which we have
In view in these remarks Is to show as
plainly as we can to our readers that
the Constitutional Amendment, in al
most its total length and breadth, has
been at one time or another endorsed
by the President. 1t matters not that
he turns his coat now and for the
sake Of popularity in the South goes
back on his record. He nevertheless
stands committed to the provisions of
the Amendment. We refer all who
have access to the document, to Nc
Pherson's political manual for 1865, in
which many of his kilograms to the
Provisional Governors, and other parts
Of his record on these questions, viii be
found. Never before has any man in
this country dared SO boldly and so
grossly to go back on his antecedents,
and to arraign his former allies and as
sociates as traitors because un-
like him they viii not prove false
to their antecedentB. Only as
late as No7ember last the Pres
ident telegraphed TO Gov. Perry,
ofsouth Carolina, in almost peremptory
terms In regard to the adoption OF the
amendment Of that State abolishine
slavery His languagevas as.foHoWs:
1.-THE President considers the accept
.ance OF the Amendment by South
.Carolina az indispensable 70 a restora-
.tlon OF her relations with the other
States Of the Union.2
Could Federal interference with the
concerns Of q State be more direct and
positive than the above3 We think
not. Why then can not Congress, the
great representative body OF the people,
70 Which IS exclusively coniided the
power % make war and peace, inter-
fere and say on what terms rebel States
that have been attempting the over
throw Of the Government, shall be re-
stored to power ia the Government. Il
would be strange indeed II the
representatives. Of the people, the only
repgeae ntatiya they have in the gov
eminent, have not this power. who
can save the nation from thacontrol of
It's enemiea If they can not do If The
attempt 70 prove them t4aitofs for so
doing + as IDLE and a. ridiculous as
WIS the pretence Of the rebels in 1881.
that there was. no power In our
government 70 coerce State.