The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1866-08-17

. ] ~ nv II fttt VI AhNiA anu IL uC were
mistaken, and members were returned
from States not organized so as to be
competent to return them, each House
had the power to determine the qucs-
tion for ITSELF in the case of each indi-
vidual member, and on full information
to reject such members.
Thcrc seems to be no agreement on
the points in which it is charged that
the President erred. Every act and
! each conceivable omission to act is OBJ
icctcd to by iffercntindividuals. The
only particular in which they agree is,
that he did not in all things conform
TO the will Of Congress. lie had opin-
ions Of his own, and expressed them in
time and form as prescribed by the
Constitution. But other grave obicc-
tions were urged.
Senator Trumbull, in n speech lately
! delivered to his constituents, claims that
the President did not punish traitors
sufficiently; in other words, that there
had not been blood enough shed, orthat
there had not been ruin and misery,
poverty and privations enough brought
upon the people of the South to teach
them that rebellion was improbable.
Mr. Trumbull, had his views been
carried out in detail, would have taught
them well that submission was even less
! profitable than rebellion, and ] would
ask uudcr what law, after the war had
ceased, could the President hang or
! shoot, or imprison, those who had been
traitors? The matter must have been
submitted to our courts Of justice, and
no time had elapsed sufficient To- Or
ganize and officer courts and bring TO
trial an hundred thousand criminals
for treason.
Mr. Trumbull (and I take him as n
fair specimen of the violent members
Of his party, claimed that the Prcsi-
dent, in conversation with him. seem
ed TO yield TO tho opinion or expressed
the opinion that the laws should be
rigidly executed against those who
violated them. When he conversed
with Mr.. Trumbull, according to the
account we have of the conversation.
he seemed to be smarting under the
inilicton Of heavy recent wrongs, and
he spoke with feelings Of indignation
and resentment common 70 men and
Ijustifiable in their private stations; but
when he become President of the Uni
ted States these feelings ought to have
been, and trust they were suppressc d
and his personal wrongs forgotten.
His Office was then the rcstorcr of pub.
lie peace and order, not the avcngcr ol
! private wrongs, or the instrument by
which private vengeance might be
lgratificd, and it became question
what was the best mode of reconciling
all men to their conditions and cstab-
fishing peace and harmony in the
country.
That popular passion and preiudiccs
still exist in the South, is undOubted.
The opinions Of men as to their alb
stract rights, are not changed; for no
man or men were ever rcsonod into a
change of opinion by the cannon or
the bayonot Though they may be
well taught TO live at peace and enjoy
freedom and safety of life and property
under n regular Constitutional Govern
mcnt, rather than suffer repetition of
the horrors and desolation Of civil
war.
1t is the remark Of writer, who
| lived through tho French Revolution,
who reasoned sagely, and observed
much that "the remedy for popular
passions is to be found, not in the des-
potism or arbitrary infiction, but in the
assumed sovereignty of the law"
For these reasons do not united in
the eonsure which Senator Trumbull
casts upon the President, because we
discover humane feeling in his officiel
action, for the miserics Of those who
had most wronged him, especially as
am conscious that his kindness and for
bcarance tended much moro than Sc
verify to the establishment of union
and harmony.
i am not the apologist of the Presi-
dent, it is simply my aim to do him
and all othors right and justice accor-
ding TO my own conceptions. In these
| may greatly err, but my opinions are
formed on passing events, and with a
view only to the interests of my coun-
try. 1t is idle to impung the motives
and apply personal abuse to those who
differ with us in political opinions-to
call namcs-to use contomptuous cpl
thels, ana Jhus depfeclato personally
those whose arguments we lind to be
unansWeIable.
There is much Of this that is neither
creditablo or statesman-l like in the
speech Of Mr.. Trumbull, which is now
before mo, but l will not comment up
on it.
My wish is that the Republican
party, very many of whose members l
highly respect, may return to tho path
Of Constitutional rectitude, and walk
ing in that path, wish them long
and sue cessful administration of their
appropriate sphere in the affairs Of
government, but if they and the Con
stthtion and tho Union oannot eXist