The Portland daily press., 1866-02-22

t was forced upon them. They were not
consulted in the matter at all. Nor were they
made free on the ''idea" that they would be-
'onle a selt-sustaining population. They were
made Tree as war measure, the only idea be-
ing to benefit and save the nation by weak
ening the common enemy. What they would
become was not considered. What effect up
on the rebellion their emancipation would
produce was the only question considered. In
forcing freedom upon them the Government
imposed upon itself the solemn duty of their
protection, and of aiding them till they could
occupy as good position, to say the least as
they did in slavery.
Says the President: on
1t is no more than justice to them the
FreedmenI to believe that they have received
their freedom with moderation and forbear-
ance 60 thew will distinguish themselves by
tho;r ;n1ustrv and thrift, and soon show the
world that in the condition of freedom they
are selfsustaining and capable of selecting
their own employment, their own place OF
abode, of insisting, for themselves, upon a
proper remuneration, and of establishing and
of maintaining their own asylums and schools.
Here as well as in the paragraph last before
quoted, the President virtually calls upon the
lame to walk and the palsied to take up their
beds. He casts them out, or assists them to
freedom" houseIess, landless, friendless, poor,
ignorant and degraded from long expressions,
and then calls upon them to be self-sustaining,
to build schools, to become educated, useful
and respectable! He calls upon them to do
this without the ballot, without the rights OF
citizenship, when the poor whites have never
done it though having the ballot and every le-
legal and civil right! He certainly would not,
by exacting SO much while comforting so little,
prove the negroes unfitness to live with the
whites, so as to afford an excuse for his forced
repatriation! Such is not the intent, but
such is the inevitable tendency of the policy
which President Johnson's veto message init.
mates should be pursued by the Government
with the millions of its poor, oppressed color
ed children, forced into freedom as measure
of great national necessity and safety. . 1t
seems to us that, having pulled down the
slave huts-the poor but only shelter the
slaves had-for the national salvation, we owe
to them at least such measure of protection
and aid as will afford them shelter equal to
that destroyed. Having switched the car of
slavery off the track for the national good, hui
mainly demands that we should at least pick
up and administer to the innocent bruised
and wounded victims.
We have extended this article to so great a
length that we refrain from further remarks
except upon single point The President
goes out of his way and aside from the ques-
ton before him, to urge the readmission of
the late rebel States, showing, it seems to us,
a great deal more sympathy for the white men
late in rebellion than for the colored men who
were uniformly loyal, and who, instead of be-
ing assisted to freedom were themselves the
assisting party, assisting to put down rebellion
and to save the nation. The President says:
The State of Tennessee, for instance, whose
authorities engaged in rebellion, was restored
to all her constitutional relations to the Union
by the patriotism and energy Of her injured
and betrayed people. a~lsin.
The oyalpeople have distinct recollection
that before there was any restoration even in
Tennessee, there was battle of Fort Dom
nelson and battle of Murfreesboro and a
battle of Pittsburg Landing on the soil of
Tennessee; that there was an "Island No.
10" In the midst of its great border river; that
Memphis ard Nashville and Knoxville and
Chattanooga, all Of the same State, were filch-
ed from the rebel hold by the force of the I'm
ion arms, and that Andrew johnson was main
tanned in the State as Military Governor, only
by the force of federal bayonets. We don't
know about "the patriotism and energy Of her
injured people" doing quite SO much in the
way of restoration as is here claimed They
were perfectly powerless, and were themselves
restored by national power. 2aI ''9as',jAi
But we stop. The President has taken the
responsibility of heading off a great measure
of protection for the colored millions of our
land, exposed to countless wrongs and acts Of
injustice. We hope no evil results will follow.
We hope Southern brutality will neither show
itself in any new shapes nor consider itself IL
censed to wreak its vengeance upon the de-
tenceless blacks. The Republican majority
in both Houses have done what they could
and failed. If evil does result they clearly are
not responsible; for which the loyal masses
will hold them in grateful remembrance