Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1866-06-01

We are not Of those who say or believe that
the President wishes to put the Government into
the hands Of its enemies /, is sheer folly TO in
sist that that he is anxious to welcome redhand-
ed rebels into Congress. A man is not proved
villain because his views appear to be short
sighted and perilous Some of the honestest
men in the world have done the most mischief,
but for all that they were not bad men. That
the President should wish to see the Union re-
stored to its normal condition during his Admin
istration is most natural and laudable; nor is il
necessary to suspect the motive Of such desire.
We disagree, indeed, with mary Of his views,
and the temper in which be often discusses pub
lie affairs in his popular speeches is most lamen-
table, His disposition to make assent to his the
cries the test Of patriotic fidelity Is, of course,
simply preposterous, and any systematic attempt
upon his part, which We do not anticipate, but
which is DANGEROUSLY urged upon him, to pros
titute the vast patronage Of office to the promo
ton of his own purposes, however honestly those
purposes may be entertained, We trust will be
Constitutonally opposed to the utmost. But We
believe he heartily deIlores the unpromising
state of feeling in large portions Of the late rebel
section, and while he is inclined to attribute it
to the delay Of Congress to admit loyal repre-
sentatiyes from that section, he probably entire
ly forgets how much Of the unsatisfactory con-
dition Of the late insurgent States is due to
departures from the policy of making treason
odious.
When the Union men of those States who have
suffered every kind Of outrage, who have been
fined, mobbed. imprisoned, and have seen their
Union neighboTs hunted and tortured and hung
for their fidelity to the Government, see man
like General Humphreys of Mississippi a con-
spicuous, leading traitor, hastily pardOned by the
President that he may become Governor; when
they see Mr.. Monroe of New Orle rs, another
chief traitor, parioned that he may become
Mayer; when they see members Of the Cabinet
deliberately annulling the law Of the land in or
der to appoint late rebels to national Offices. while
the most noted and tried Union men in the in
suTgent States ask in vain for such recognition
OF their fidelity, how can such men help bitter
ly feeling the contemptuous scorn with which
the triumphant rebels regard them, How can
they help asking why they might not as well
have been rebels How can they help the con-
viction that the policy of the Executive is con-
citation Of rebels and not recognition Of Union
men, to avoid asking with intense increduIity
whether this is the way in which treason is to be
made Odiousl
On the other hand, what IS more natural than
that the late rebels who, the President solemn
ly declared last year, were to be made odious,
seeing exactly what the Union men see. should
denounce Congress precisely as they used to de-
nounce "the North" should heap every insult
ing superlativ. upon the most loyal men in the
country, should yociferously declare their
rights and begin yehemently to expound
the Constitution which for four years they have
trampled under foot What is more natural
than that these men whose treason, the President
taught us, was to make them odious, should per-
secute with savage ferOcity the most unfortunate
and defenseless Of all Union men in the South,
the freedmen, attack their teachers and assas-
sinate the officers Of the Bureau, when they zee
that the Executive is plainly hostile to the Freed
mems Bureau, is reluctant to secure their civil
rights, and iercely denounces as traitors their
especial friends? What is more natural than
that these men who were to be made odious |
should make it odious TO have been q Union |
man, and as Mr.. Bolts says in Virginia, should |
'assume a superiority over the loyal men Of this |
State, impudent, defiant, and determined to o. |
tracise, decapitate, and put the brand Of infamy |
upon loyal men, aad by legislation to render |
treason commendable and loyalty a crime
What wonder that the late rebel Mayor of Mo- |
bile. at a banquet Of rebels, toas,s together An
drew johnson and jefferson Davis, while John /
Miner Bolts, whose fidelity to the Union will
not be questioned, declares that be has abandon
ed President Johnson's PLAN
What is the exclamation Of this extraordinary
state Of affairs A year ago, amidst the total
ruin Of the rebellion and exhaustion OF the reb-
el section, and with the hearty sympathy and
support Of every loyal man IN the land, Mr.
johnson became President, declaring, while all
the people said Amen, that treason must be made
Odious- Now. when year has passed, il is 10y
atty that is odious and dangerous in the disaf-
fected section, and the vast body Of loyal citizens
gaze at the President in wonder Is this situa-
ton to be explained by the delay Of Congress to
admit loyal Representatives from unorganized
States, or by the fact that the Executive has
not succeeded in making treason odious in those
States
If from the moment be became President, Mr..
Johnson, while be reasonably pardoned and am
nestled the late rebels, had strenuously support
u in every way the constant Union men Of the
'ebel States, If be had shown the most unfiinch-
ng determination that every right of the freed
men should be respected, and had every where
manifested the success Of the Government by its
fhcial preference OF those who had defended il
nd believed in it under terrible trials, then.
whatever his differences with Congress upon
uestions Of method might have been, his policy
you'd have been a. approved and resistless as
hat Of Mr.. Lincoln.
And we have no doubt that IL the Executive ,
hould unswervingly insist upon making treason
dious, not BY hanging or imprisoning or con-
seating, nor BY treating every man who was In
rms as il be were . murderer, but by that firm
reference Of tried 6delity which e perfectly