The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-04-19
The President and the Radicals.


We present our readers with the following
statement of the political situation at Wash
ington, as communicated to the n. Y NsDs
by its correspondent DRUID:
Washington, April l6, 1866.
TIE WAR BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT
AND CONGRESS-.
The statement has recently been made that
the relations between President Johnson and
the Radical majority of Congress have assum-
ed more harmonious complexion since the
Civil Rights bill has become a law (?) and
that the President is now disposed to yield, to
abandon some of the distinctive features of his
policy, and to adopt, to some extent, the poll
cy, OF the Radicals. The Radicals themselves
are taking some pains to disseminate this
statement. But there is not a word OF truth
in it. There never has been a time, during
the last nine months, when the President
stood more firmly upon the distinctive plat
form of his policy than at present There
never has been a time when be has been more
| firmly convinced that the prosperity and hap
piness of the country depended upon the adop-
ton of that policy, than at present There
never has been time when he has felt more
Encouraged to persevere in the path that
| he has marked out for himself than at pre-
sent.
On the other hand, the Radicals in Con-
gress have never felt mora Indignantly dis
posed toward him than at present. They have
never been more determined to crush him
than at present. They have never been more
entirely convinced of the existence of the great
gulf which separates their principles from
| those of the President, gulf which is every
/ day growing wider and deeper, than at pre-
sent. They hate Andrew johnson, because
! they know that he knows all their plots and
| schemes against the Government and 10 de-
/ termined to defeat them. But they fear him
even more than they hate him, because they
know the indomitabe spirit of the man, and
! they fear that he will exercise the Executive
| powers, with which he is clothed, in such
manner as to render them powetless for future
evil
| Mr. Coitea's bid for the Presidency,
! Mr. Colfax is destined to be the Radical
candidate for the next Presidency. That NOM
nation he will receive as sure as the sun will
rise tomorrow morning. Neither Chief JUS
/ tce Chase nor General Grant will have the
ghost of chance when the claims Of Mr..
Co1fax are presented. Understanding this,
Mr.. Colfax is playing the sharpest game be
can, and one of his trump cards is misrepre-
sentation of President johnson. He tried in
his late speech to convince the country flor he
was speaking to the Radical masses of the
| North, and not to the little crowd before him)
that President Johnson's policy, il successful,
would render nugatory all the efforts of those
who toiled and bled for the preservation of
the Union during the war
| The President Determined 10 Carry oss his
| Policy
Such, in brief, is the essence and spirit Of
the programme of the Radicals, as Swallowed
forth in the speeches of Mr. Colfax, Mr.. Orth,
| Thaddeus Stevens, Mr.. Sumner, Mr.. Wade,
and Mr. 1'rumbull They hate the President
because he penetrates and exposes their afro
cious designs; but they fear him more than
they hate him, because they fear that, having
| the power to thwart their designs, he will ex-
ercise it.. Nor are these apprehensions ground
less. The principles upon which the admins
| tration Of Andrew johnson are to be con-
Quoted are laid down in his two veto MESA
ges, and in his speech on the 22d of February.
| The sentiments which he expressed on those
three occasions were the deliberate convictions
| of his understanding, and from them he will
! not swerve His policy Of restoration is based
upon the Constitution. 1t proceeds upon the
| principle that the Soul hern States are as much
entitled to representation in Congress, and to
a voice upon the national legislation, as the
States of Massachusetts or New York. Your
readers may depend upon it that principle
will be carried out to its legitimate conclusion
The peace proclamation was the Presidents
first step in this direction. 1t will be followed
by others at no distant day.
The Bill Destroys the Gra Rights of the Gti-
The friends of the odious measure just pass
ed, call it the Civil Rights bill. But the pro-
per name for it, is "a bill for the Destruction
Of the Civil Rights OF the People of the South
ern States" The civil rights of every citizen
of the United States were amply secured, be-
fore the passage of this BILL by the Constitu-
ton of the United States. What are these
rights? They are many and various but they
are all included in the right of personal liber-
ty, the rights of property, the right OF free
speech, and the right Of freedom of religious
worship. All these rights were fully guar
anteed by the Constitution of the United
States and the State Courts stood ready to
enforce those rights Was a citizen arrested,
and deprived of his liberty? The sacred writ
of heabeas corpus determined whether or not
the arrest was legal; and if not, 1t restored
him to liberty? Was the sacred privacy oil
the house of citizen violated; was his pro
perty seized for public uses: or were bis rights
of property in any other manner infringed?
The courts were open to him, and the law
gave him instant relief The title to his land
was inalienable. except by his own voluntary
act. Such was the status Of the citizens OF the
United States, before this was passed; or rath-
er, let it be said, before the revolutionary Re-
publican party had seized the control of the
Government.
Steps of the Radicals toacards Rerolntio"
There are in this atro:ious act, and the NAH
6 ,,a1rol,la ouiHnnPps nj