The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1866-03-03
Taxation and Representation.

Il
The strong point which the President, in
his veto message, makes against the radical
| legislation of Congress is, that 1t is taxation
| without representation. The revolution was
fought on that issue, and any legislation from
that day to this, either state or national
which involves taxation without repre- senta>
ton, is Infamous. The souti ern states are
taxed in every particular as the northern
states are taxed; their lands are taxed
their agricultural products are taxed their
incomes, their manufactures, their tea, coffee
sugar-everything they earn or consume is
taxed !; yet they are not allowed to have q
single representative in Congress.
Why? The radicals tell US, that the PEG,
pie of the South ere not to be trusted.
Though conquered, they are still rebels at
heart. They must first be converted.
would you admit to seats in Congress men
whose hands are red with the blood &C.,
&c? The President and nobody else asks
Congress to admit any such men. Congress.
two years ago passed a law prescribing an
oath which all its members must take before
they can be admitted to seats in either house.
This oath requires that the member shall
not only never himself have borne arms
gainst the Government, but shall not have
contributed in any way, BY word Of encour-
agement, free gift, or payment Of taxes, to
the support Of the rebellion. In short, it
means, that none but men who have always
been loyal shall hold seats in Congress.
Now there are, in most of the southern
states, plenty of just such men--men who
battled the rebels on their own groand as
long as they could, and then were driven to
caves in the mountains until they found
refuge in the Union armies. There were
loyal white regiments by the dozen from
Tennessee, Alabama. Virginia, North Caro-
lima. &c What the South itself asks is.
that this loyal, Union element shall now be
recognised in Congress; that these men
whose loyalty stood such an o-dea! as the
loyalty of no northern man encountered.
shall be allowed to represent their states in
Congress. Will men like Maynard of Ten
nessee, Marvin of Florida, Cock of Alabama,
ana nunureus or DINERS mat could be named,
be less loyal IN Congress-less true to the
Union, than when the storm, Of rebellion
ragged around their heads?
Instead of furnishing the rebels by
keeping the southern representatives out of
Congress, it is punlshing the loyal men of
those states. The southern states have their
Legislatures, and pass and obey their own
laws. These laws are passed by Legislators,
mary of whom unquestionably were promi-
nent rebels. Many of these laws, it il
alleged, are unfriendly, even oppressive TO
the true Union men of those states. What
redress have they? There is a Freedmen's
Bureau for the negroes, but what help is
there for the loyal whites? Admit them to
seats in Congress, and their wrongs will be
righted soon enough. We believe the dispo-
sition of nine-tenths of all the people Of the
South is TO accept the results of the war in
goad faith, and not only to acquiesce in, but
to give cordial, hearty support to the Gov,
ernment Of the Union. But whether such is
the feeling of the masses or not, it is cruel
to doubt and punish those who were true
during the storm of battle