American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-08-08


ton. His antislavery amendment, as
sumption of our, and liquidation Of the
debt, his theory that the rebel States
were never out of the Union; his repeat
ed declarations that none but loyal men
should rule; his view of representation,
that it should be based upon suffrage pop
ulation, all met with my approval, and
with, as | believe, the general approval
of the Union party. And when Con
gress proposed their resolutions on Re-
construction, embodying the Sc great fun
damental principles, it was confidently
expected that you and the President
would at once approve and harmonize in
future action. The prestige of the Pres
idents favor of the measure would have
at once brought the rebel States to terms,
and doubtless within year every one of
them would have accepted and cheerful
" performed the conditions. Instead of
this, | regret that you and the President
have thought proper to insist upon the
establishment of a rule which would en-
tile JEFF. Davis, Breckinridgc, Mason
and Slidell to resume their seats in the
Senate of the United States, and there,
some of them but fresh from the battle
field, where they have been beaten, to
take part in the enactment of laws for a
nation they tried to destroy. A united
public sentiment furbids this. Justice to
the loyal living and to the memory of
the loyal dead forbid it, AMI you and the
President, with all the patronage you
possess, cannot demoralize enough of
Union men to effect your purpose See
where your and the Presidents test OF
loyalty has brought you right into the
arms of rebels of the rankest kind. Your
Convention has not yet assembled, and
it may not yet be too late for you to re
tract
No man, no matter how high position
he may occupy, should fec, ashamed to
conform his act to the wishes of the
people who conferred upon him the trust
he holds.
You and the President received yours
from loyal men north and south and not
from the Vallandiehams, Pendletons,
Woods, Seymours, Reeds, and Others like
them and as high minded, honorable men
finding you have made q mistake, con.
fess 1t and rschew all further connection
with the Convention of the 14th of Au-
gust. The city, which contains independ-
encc Hall, in Mhich President Lincoln on
his way to Washington in 1861 declared
his willingness to suffer marty rdom rath-
er than sacrifice the principles of free.
dom, and the same Hall in which his
martyrcd remains lay in state in 1865,
ought not to be desecrated by any such
assemblage of rebels as will doubtless be
there. In that body there may be some
Union loving, loyal democrats and Re.
publicans, and to them | mean no disre
spect, but they will be in a proportion so
small that the sprinkling of all their salt
will not confer upon the putrid character
of that body the slightest SAVIOR, and
they will find, when perhaps it is too
late, that their contact with so foul an
assemblage will result in their political
destruction more effectually than if they
had been members of the infamous Hart
ford Convention
Your call, emanating as it does from
yourself and few prolessed Union men
in Washington City, meets with no re-
sponse from the loyal men of the States,
and in this the banner Union County of
the nation, in which Mr.. Lincoln receiv-
ed ten thousand majority, there is not a
single Union voter who will endorse the
proceedings of the Convention of the
l4th of August, as now foreshadowcd -
II there be an exception to this it will be
confined to the fewupon whom the Ma
tional Offices have been conferred.
In conclusion, sincerely hope that
you may yet withdraw from all connec-
tion with what is now apparent to you
will be nothing more than reb cl assem-
blage, aud that you viii counsel the Pres
ident to do the same aud that the Ma
tional Union party-after having fought
and won the lpower of the government, i,
may be saved the disgrace of having it
handed over through treachery to the
discom6tted rebels
SANIL 4. PURvIANcg,
Member of the National Union Execu-
tive Committee for Pennsylvania.
July 81, 1866.