Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-03-08
The Veto Message.

The Senate did wisely in adjourning after
the Veto Message was read. Legislation
under such excitement is not likely to be
dignifed or sagscious. That tho Message
was a sore disappointment to the trucst
friends Of the President cannot be denied.
| Their regret may be measured by the re.
ioicing Of those who would fain use him for
their own purposes. Whether those friends
are to be found among those who most
earnestly advocated his election, or those
who most strenuously opposed it, whether
those who we're in bloody rebellion at the
South, and those who heartily supported
them at the North are really the wisest ad
visers upon the great problem Of reorgani.
zation are questions which time will ade-
quatelv answer.
| or the Presidents sincerity there is no
doubt. That he honestly wishes, AZ he saws,
to secure to the Freedmen the full enjoy.
ment Of their liberty we fully believe. But
| he seems to US not entirely master of his
own positions Thus he acknowledges the
usefulness of the Freedmen's Bureau as
established by the act of last March But
he regards it as war measure, and war
having ceased, he is OF opinion that the
matter should be- left to the States. Yet,
if war has ceased, why does he support
Gen. Terry's military order reversing the
action of the Virginia Legislature? So the
President says that In bis judgment the
late rebel States ''have been fully restored
and are to be deemed to be entitled to enjoy
their constitutional rights as members of
the Union" Yet if this be so, why in his
late proclamati restoring the privilege Of
the writ Of habeas corpus did he except the
late rebel States? The Constitution defines
a - a,.I.s;ooa ,,n1ar vyh;ah tha r;ubt ors s,,,
pending the privilege may bs exercised. 1t
is only when in case of rebellion or invasion
the public safety may require it. Yet he
expressly exhorts MS in the Message not to
suppose that the United States are 10 con-
dition of civil war.
The Freedmen's Bureau is exceptional
but it is so only because the condition of the
country is exceptional All the PRESIDENT g
acts in initiating the reorganization of the
late rebel States were exceptional. But the
question of the hour is very simple in itself,
however difficult it may be to answer. How
can the United States most surely and judi
ciously and temperately secure the fruit of
the victory they have won? Having given
liberty to millions Of slaves, how can the
authority that conferred it maintain its per-
petuity? To suppose that coerced adop-
ton of the Emancipation Amendment, with
out any specific method of enforcing it, will
produce this result is as idle as to imagine
that decaratory resolution would effect it.
The Constitution itself contains guarantee
of free speech for every citizsn, but it did
not secure it in half the country. Why
should we expect of an amendment virtue
which does not inhere in the original instru-
men.? The President says that system
for the support Of INDECENT persons was
never contemplated by the author of the
Constitution. Certainly not, and this bill is
no more such dsystem than an appropria-
tion for military hospitals would be. 1t is a
simple necessity of the situation. Shall
these homeless, landless, forlorn persons be
left to the mercies of those who despise and
hate them or shall the United States say,
"We cut the bonds that bound you to the
ground, and we will protect you while you
are struggling to get upon your feet ?"
If the President believes that the word
of the nation sacredly pledged to the freed
men will be kept by the black codes of South
Carolina and Mississippi, his faith would
remove mountains And if he proposes to
abandon the freedmen to civil authorities
created exclusively by those who think that
the colored race should be eternally enslaved
who deny. the constitutionality Of emanci-
patton, and who have now peculiarly en-
venomed hostility to the whole class, we can
only pray God that the result may be what
we have no doubt he honestly wishes it to
be. We believe that he is faithful to what
he conceives to be the best interests of the
whole country. And while upon this ques-
tion we wholly differ from him, vie differ
with no aspersion or suspicion.