Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-04-10
The Testimony Against the SOuth-A
Condemnation of Radiealism.

Strike out from the testimony taken before that
one-sided concern, the irresponsible Cen
trail Directory" all that favOrs Southern 10y
atty, aud leave only that of radical army
officers, and what are called Southern Union
men"-that is, men who were against the
South during the war, and now want all the
offices and rewards-and it utterly fails to suS
tainthe theory that the South cannot be trusted,
and is not prepared to take her proper place in
the Union Every witness, whose testimony
we have read, when asked if the Presidents
restoration policy is acceptable to the Southern
people, replied in the misunderstanding
that the Southern people are perfectly content
to return to the Union on the terms offered by
the President-giving up slavery, the doctrine
of secession, the Confederate war debt, and all
purposes and wishes in regard to a separate
Southern Confederacy. When this is shown,
enough is shown to satisfy any rational man
that Southern loyalty, as it is termed, cannot
Justly be questioned. But this word loyalty is
used in different senses by different persons.-
Its true meaning is faithful adherence to ale
giance-Cealty" But the Radicals use it in
different sense. When they say that the South
ern people are not loyal, they cannot mean
that they refuse to recognize and obey the
Constitution, laws and authorities of the United
States; for if this we're so, they would still be
in instruction. To say that they are in insur-
rection, would be too barefaced and palpable a
falsehood even for the Father of lies himself
Their meaning is nothing; or, 1t Is that the
Southern people are opposed to the unconsti-
tutional, extreme, revolutionary and oppressive
measures proposed for their goyernance by
SUMNER and STEVENS and their followers. This,
the Southern people do not deny and lfthls be
disloyalty, they do not pretend to be loyal. II
is gross perversion of language to call 1t dis
loyalty Disloyalty to what Not to the Con-
stitutiOn, not to the laws, not to anything en-
Joined or prohibited. 1t is dislOyalty to thing
that has no legal existence-the party policy OF
areekless and eonscienceless sectional Organi-
zation. We are disloyal because we are not
Radicals. BY the same test, ANDREW JOHNSON,
the President Of the United States, and Mr..
SEWARD, his Secretary OF State, are disloyal,
and so are all who oppose radiealism
The political witnesses, whose testimony is
paraded before the public, allege that the state
of feeling in the South was much sounder some
months ago than it is now, and they make a
point of declaring, one after another that if the
Southern States were now restored and the Fed
eral troops Withdrawn, the rights Of what they
call the Union men and the freedmen would not
be respected. For hesake of argument, admit
this to be true; what does it prove Improves
that under proper treatment, such treatment
as the President proposes to pursue, the loyalty
of the South would be strong, sincere and re-
liable, and that, whatever Of discomfort pre-
walls, is the result of radical insult and Oppres
sion. The assertion referred to is a pregnant
admission that the naScent loyalty WHICH was
being developed in the recess Of Congress
under the Presidents wise and benignant
Dolicv, has been nipped in the bud by the
jealousy, hatred and oppression Of the dOmi-
D.Dt marty in Congress. We are arguing now
mon their own premises and admissions.
These witnesses say that Southerners do not
,n,o Nortberners. How can they be expected
% ike those Northerners who proclaim them
.olvss their enemies, and labor night and day
20 depv them their rights under the Constitu-
- - orusb them and their families into the
18th and to make them stand out separate
.na .nart as PAR1AHs. Says that brawling IA