Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1866-09-21
Signs of the Times.

The elections in Vermont and Maine aft
ord unmistakable evidence that the tide of
public opinion is flowing rapidly against
the presidential policy of reconstruction
The friends of equal rights and impartial
Justice to all classes of men, are inspired
with new hope for the speedy triumph of
their cherished principle of freedom and
equality under the laws by which the peo-
pie of America are hencetorth to be govern
ed. 1t is not merely because these States
have gone Republican for that is what
everybody expected. But the unprcceden
ted gains are a sure index to the state of
public feelings not in these states only, but
in every loyal state in the Union, and point
with unerring certainty to an overwhelm-
ing triumph of a liberty loving people in
the coming contest, over the mercenary
hirelings of an apostate administration, and
the mad ambition of aspiring politicians.
Day by day reveals new evidence of the
apostacy of the administration from its
former professions.
The gambling and suppression of the des
the New Orleans massacre, the speeches of
the President at Cleveland, Niagara Falls,
and other places, have set the faces of the
loyal people like flint against the practi-
cal demonstration of his theory, and fixed
in their hearts the unalterable determine
ton to stand unmoved by the principle
adopted by their representatives in Con-
gress in the reconstruction of the States
lately in rebellion. The threatened horrors
of disunion, the prating about rival con-
crosses and military force or the ghostly
spectre of another civil war, have no tcrrors
for people that base their political action
on the enduring principle Of justice, and the
indefeasible right of all men to freedom and
an equal and impartial right to protection
OF person and property by the laws OF the
land. Nothing short Of this undying princi-
pie will find hearty response from the
loyal millions determined to WELD the flu
ture destinies of this Republic.
When the people render their verdict in
the contest between the executive and legis-
lative departments of the Federal Govern
ment, and return men to Congress that will
stand firmly by the principles embodied in
the proposed amendment to the constitution,
traitors will begin to lower their sails, exc
cutive usurpation will fall harmless at ihe
feet of the people, and before the close of
another session of Congress sing policy"
will be abandoned, the amendment ratified
by the requisite number Of the States, and
all the States be restored to their proper
relations to Federal Government. The
principles of the Philadelphia Convention,
as expounded in the address of Mr.. Ray
mond, are clearly and unreconcilably at war
with the course persued by the President.
For if the rebel States possessed all their
former rights and powers as members Of the
Union when they laid down their arms and
surrendered to the Federal army, then Pres
ident johnson assumed a power in appoint
ing Provisional Governors and dictatin O
the terms on which they should be received
into the Union, without even shadow of
authority or justification. But little need be
said of that Convention; its Importance was
all in advance of its sitting. The trumpet-
tongued messengers that echoed the politi-
cal revolution that would be set in motion
by the conservative talent of the nation, at
the meeting of the most important Conven-
ton of the nineteenth century, are already
hushed in silence, and but little is said of,
and less cared for, its decalogue The "my
policy" tornado that was sweeping over the
country two short months ago, has passed
harmlessly by, and the people are taking the
matter of reconstruction into their own
hands. The Presidents blast is blown; the
country is safe; the people intend to shape
its future destiny. u.