Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-03-05

ShermAan's Speech In ihe Senate Of
the United states ON the @Oth Of
February. E
This speech is published in full In the
Commercial of the Al inst. The scope ap-
pears to be the pouring of oil on the
troubled waters. Mr.. Sherman sees the
approach of fatal calamity to the Republi-
can party--its rupture-and hence he has
endeavored to ward it off.
The effort is very clever SO far as die
ton Is concerned. It is also. elaborate.
Further, it is self-sacrIlcing, if not abso-
lutely stultifying. The occasion of the
speech was the pendency in the Senate OF
the resolution asserting the right of Con-
gress to prescribe rules for the admission of
the Southern States. The veto of the Freed
mems Bureau bill was the matter, however,
upon which the author expended himself.
The point most worthy of notice in the
speech is the assertion that the party in
Congress has provided NO PLAN for the ad-
mission of the seeding States. They are
just now indeed engaged in discussing the
right to do so. This being the case, the
President brought forward his plan. Mr..
Sherman lectures his friends sharply for
their dereliction of duty, telling them that
the people will have plan OF some kind or
other, and suggesting that if they cannot
get one from Congress they will take the
Presidents. Mr.. Sherman says he voted
for the Freedmen's Bureau bill, and after
the veto, he voted to pass it over the head
of the President. Now, however, on the
second sober thought" rather than have a
rupture of the party that has Saved the
Unionil he will support the President. He
goes to the President, and thinks it right to
do so, because Congress has furnished not
only no better plan for the return of the
States, but no plan at all.
Is Mr.. Sherman right in this statement?
It is true that no plan of admission has been
written out and formally submitted to eth
er branch of Congress, Butts not the plan
of the Radicals well understood9 Have
not the leaders in both the House and Sem
ate given, in their speeches, the conditions
upon which they were willing the vacant
seats might be oceupied3 The very bill the
President vetoed contained quite number
of the conditions. Another condition pro-
posed is that of negro suffrage. Still an
other one is the adjustment of the repre-
sentation of the States South in such way
as to secure forever the power of the Rcpub-
I;oan norty l. Mr. Chairman himeplf ~ ith-
out plan for the admission of the States?
In the very speech before us, while charg-
ing his eonfreres with great oversight in
not proposing something for the people to
think about, he comes to the rescure and
lets his own plan out. He says he would
require the 'teSt oath" OF every man pre-
senting himself. This is only another way
ofsaying he would have the Southern seats
vacant until the next generation. There are
no persons in the South, except Yankees
and hypOcrites, but what have had some
hand, directly or indirectly, in supporting
the rebellion. Mr.. Sherman would make
the space between loyal men and rebels rs
deep as the gulf between Heaven and He'll.
A pretty remark that!! for man lecturing
his brethren on forbearance toward Andy
johnson, and also oncaution in the appli-
cation to him of hard names. How deepis
the gulf between Heaven and Hell? Bad
language and bad figure. Again, another
of Mr., Sherman's conditions is that JEFF.
Davis must be executed to propitiate pub
lie sentiment at the North. And not only
JEFF. Davis, but other leaders must be dealt
with in the same way at intervals to keep
the Abolitionists in good heart. This is
charity with a vengeance! and the man
having such things in his heart is, of |
course, well qualified for the office ofpacifi-
Gator johnson, from the way he talks,
would about as soon have Chase, Sumner,
Stevens, ct id onsne genus, executed, as JEFF.
Davis. Disunionists North, as.well as Dis
South, have been the cause of our
troubles and why should not both suffer
alike? H.