The Portland daily press., 1866-02-24
Neither the @Moses' nor the "Joshua."

Neither the "Moses'' nor the "Joshua."
President johnson has at least twice
proposed,-once while Provisional Govern |
or of Tennessee and once in his colloquy |
with the colored delegation.-to become the |
Moses for the colored race, to lead them up
ont of the house of bondage, as Moses led the
children of Israel out of Egypt. But this SER
vice was not reserved for him, or placed with
in his reach.
Abraham Lincoln was the Moses for the
colored race; he it was who spoke the great
word that burst their chains asunder, opened
their prison doors, and enable them 10 bask in
the sunshine of Freedom. Had he lived he
probably would have done more; not been
content to lead them out of the house of bend
age as Moses did his people, and only in sight
of the promised land of equal rights and full
citizenship, for before the murderer's bullet
penetrated his brain he gave unmistakable in
timation that, the war closed, he would make
the right of suffrage as universal as his own
clemency-that amnesty to offenders and suf-
ffage to the emancipated should go hand III
hand. Evidently, then, President Johusons
proposition to become the Moses of the Color
ed race was mere rhetoric, designed, perhaps,
to assure them of his profound regard for the
millions redeemed from slavery by the wofd Oh
his predecessor, not by any act or agency OF
his own. 'i ID
INT President johnson had glorious OPP
portunity to become more than the Moses. He
could have taken the colored race, freed from
chains and looking wistfully forward, where
Moses had left them, and like Joshua, have
led them into the possession of the Promised
Land; into the rights and privileges which
were opened up before them, and to which the
spirit and action of his predecessor alike
pointed. Had he started from the spot where
Lincoln fell, and, with face pointing in the
same direction, walked straight forward, he
would have laid the foundation of populari-
ty as immortal as Liberty ITSELF of reputa-
ton that would outlast obelisks of granite and
shafts of marble, and in the heart Of every
LOYAL white man, and of every colored man,
down to times latest hour, his memory would
have been enshrined as the great fnisher of
the work which his martyred predecessor had
I SO nobly begun. lid as,.
2 This, however, he declines to do. Instead
of leading the colored race up and onward,
into the possession of higher rights and more
precious privileges, he stands before them to
prevent their progress, denying them the
rights of manhood, regarding them only as
superior animals whose kind treatment may
l,o ;,,nortout to patinna nj r,rocnar;iu ond vb,,
viii make rich returns tor the fostering care
bestowed upon them in the shape of increas-
ed industry and larger productiyeness. We
trust we do Mr.. johnson no injustice;i we GER
tatnly would not do so, but in careful survey
of all he has done, either as Governor of Ten
nessee or as President of the United States,
we fail to call to mind the first ACT done fer
the colored people which implied any particu-
lar regard for their rights or their welfare.
d True, he has been in favor of the Constitu-
b tional amendment abolishing slavery, and re-
qnired that certain of the late rebel States
should endorse that amendment as condi-
ton of restoration, but he never urged the
measure as an act Of justice to the blacks, or
placed it on the high ground of the moral
wrongfulness of slavery. He invariably in
sisted upon it as a security against future
trouble, wisely considering that but for sIav-
cry our civil war would never have occurred.
Mr. johnson has spoken pleasant cords
about the colored race; he has called upon
men all dusty from battle, all covered with
scars received in defending the flag, some OF
them ar1nless, some of them legless, many OF
them MANNED for life, to go home and py0re
their fitness to be trusted; their fitness for self
government.-as though the hard experience
on the battlefield from which they had but
just returned, as though Wagner and Pillow
and Stone River and Port Hudson had done
nothing to exhibit such fitness, to show their
, manhood, to suggest their rights, or to quicken
the national conscience in relation to recog-
milton of those rights. In the veto message
the other day the President used compliment
tary ,cords; he said the colored people were
sharp at q bargain, industrious, capable of self
education and selfelevation, but he denies
their right to suffrage, he denies the protc-
ton of the Government against the enemies
who would re-enslave them. t.r
We take no pleasure in calling up such I'M
pleasant facts, but they soiu come up, and they
have got to be faced and considered. The
events of the hour will command attention,
and the temper of the hour is such, thank
Heaven, that men-even great men-must
stand or fall by their acts and not by sugared
words. Abraham Lincoln was the Moses CT
the colored race upon this continent; themsn
who is to be their Joshua has not yet appear
ed in that capacity upon the theatre of action.