The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1866-02-28
Speech Of President johnson.
At Washington, Feb. ~, 1865.


cral policy, President johnson replied on
Washington's Birthday from the steps Of his
house to about 1900 persons, in speech
which we present this week almost entire to
the exclusion of our usual STORY
FELLOW CITIZENS, for presume havc q
right to address you as such; come TO
tender to you my sincere thanks for the APP
probation expressed by your Committee IN
their personal addresses, and in the rcsolu
tons submitted by them as having been
adopted by the meeting which has been held
in this city to-day.
These resolutions as l understand them,
are complimentary to the policy, which has
been adopted by tho Administration, and
has been steadily pursued since it came
into power. am free to say to you on this
occasion that il is extremely gratifying to
me to know that SO large q portion of my
fellow citizens approve and indorsc tho po-
Icy which has been adopted, and which it
is my intention shall be carried out. Great
applause That policy is one which is in
tended to restore all the States to their ORR
ginal relations to the Federal Government
Of the United States. Renewed applause. !
This seems to be a day peculiarly appropri-
ate to such manifestations.
The President then entered into culogy
upon Washington, after which he reverted
to the record Of President Jackson, and
then continued:
We have witnessed what has transpircd
since his day in 1888. When treason and
trcachery and infidelity to the Government
and the Constitution Of the United States
stalkcd forth in the land, it was his power
and influence that crushed the serpent in
its incipiency. 1t was then stopped, but
only for time. The same spirit of dis
affection continued. There were men dis
affected to the Government both in the
North and in the South. There was, in
portion of the Union, peculiar institution
of which some complained, and to which
others were attached. One portion of our
countrymen in the South advocated that in
stitution, while another portion in the North
opposed 1t. The result was the formation
of extreme parties-one especially in the
South, which reached a point at which il
was proposed to dissolve the Union of the
States for the purpose, as was said, of Sc
curing and preserving that peculiar insti-
tuition. There was another portion of our
countrymen who were opposed to that insti-
tuition, and who went to such an extreme
tuith tucy WCTc WHlIHS " DTcak up tHc wv
eminent, in order to get clear of that pecu-
liar institution of the South. l say these
things because desire to talk plainly and
in familiar phraseology. assume nothing
here to-day beyond the position of q citizen,
one who has been pleading for his country
and the preservation Of the Constitution.
Immense cheering Those two parties, |
say, were arrayed against each other, and
l stand here before you for the Union to-
day, as l stood in the Senate of the United
States in 1860 and 1861. met there those
who were making war upon the Constitu-
ton, those who wanted to disrupt the Gov
eminent, and denounced them in my place,
then and there, and exposed their true
character. l said that those who were en-
gagged in the work Of breaking up the Gov
eminent were traitors. l have never ceased,
on all proper occasions, to repeat that SEN
timent, and so far as my efforts could 60 l
have endcavored to carry it out. Great
applause. have just remarked that there
were two parties, one of which was for de-
stroying the Government and separating the
Union in order to preserve slavery, and the
other for breaking up the Government in
order to destroy slavery. True, the objects
which they sought to accomplish were diff
ferent, SO far as slavery was concerned, but
they agreed in the desire to break up the
Goycrnment--the precise thing to which l
have always been opposed; and whether
disunonists come from the South or from
the North, stand now as did then, yindi-
eating the Union of these States and the
Constitution of my country. Tremendous
applause When rebellion and treason
manifested themselves in the South, stood
by the Government. said then, that | was
for the Union with slavery, was for the
Union without slavery; in either alternative
/ was for my Government and its Constitu
ton. The Government has stretched forth
its strong arm, and with its physical power
it has put down treason in the field. The
section of the country which then arrayed
itself against the Government has been put
down by the strong arm. What did we say
when this treason originated We said,
No compromise. You yourself in the
South can settle this question in eight and
forty hours" l said again and again, and
l repeat it now, "Disband your armies in
the South, acknowledge the supremacy Of
the Constitution Of the United States, nc
knowledge the duty Of obedience to the
laws, and the whole question is settled"
IApplause.l What has been done since?
Their armies have been disbanded, and they
come forward now in q proper spirit, and
say, 1--WE were mistaken. We made an
effort to carry out the doctrine of secession,
and to dissolve this Union. In that we have
failed. We have traced this doctrine to its
logical and physical results, and we find
that we were mistaken. We acknowledge
the flag of our country, and are willing to
obeJsthe Constitution, and to yield to the
supremacy of the laws" [Great applause.
Coming in that spirit say to them, When
you have complied with the requirements Of
the Constitution, when you have yielded to
the law, when you have acknowledged your
allegiance to the Constitution, will, SO far
ms | can, open the door Of the Union to
those who had erred and strayed from the
fold Of their fathers for q time. Great
applause.
Who suffered more by the rebellion than
have? l shall not repeat the story of the
wrongs and sufferings inflicted upon me.
The spirit of revenge is not the spirit in
which to deal with a whole people. know
there has been great deal said about the
exercise of the pardoning power. So far rs
your Executive is concerned, there is no
one who has labored with more earnestness
than myself to have the principal intelligent
and conscious traitors brought to justice,
the law vindicated, and the great fact judi
ciously established that treason is a crime.
IApplause. But while conscious, leading,
and intelligent traitors are to be punished,
should whole communities and States and
peoples be made to submit to the penalty Of
death T"No, no."l l have perhaps rs
much asperity and MS must resentment as