Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-06-09

odious should make 1t odlOus TO have
been a Union man, and as Mr.. Bolts
says in Virginia, should " assume q su
periority over the loyal men Of this State,
impudent, defiant, and determined to
ostracize, decapitate, and TO put the brand
of infamy upon loyal men, and hy legis-
lation to render treason .cOmmendable
and loyalty q crime" What wonder
that the late rebel Mayor of Mobile, at
a banquet of rebels, toasts together An
drew johnson and Jefferson Davis, while
John Minor Bolts, whose fidelity to the
Union will not be questioned. declares
that he has abandoned President John
sons plan
What is the explanation of this extra
ordinary state of affairs A year ago,
amidst the total ruin of the rebellion
and exhaustion of the rebel section, and
with the hearty sympathy and support of
every loyal man in the land, Mr.. John.
son became President, declaring, while
all the people said Amen, that treason
must he made odious. Now, when n
year has passed, it is loyalty that is obi
Gus and dangerous in the disaffected Sec
ton, and the vast body of loyal citizens
GAZE at the President in wonder. Is
this situation to be explained by the de-
lay Of Congress to admit loyal represen-
talives from unorGanized States, or by
the fact that the Executive has not sue
ceeded in making treason odious in those
States
If from the moment be became Presi-
dent Mr. johnson, while he reason ably
pardoned and amnestied the late rebels,
had strcnuously supported in every way
the constant Union men of the rebel
States. if he had shown the most IN
finching determination that every right
of the freedmen shond be respected and
had everywhere manifested the success of
the government by lis official preference
of those who had defended il and believ-
cd il. it under terrible trials, then whatev-
er his differences with Congress upon
questions of method might have been.
his policy would have been as approved
and res;stless as that Of Mr.. Lincoln
As It is, the Union men Of the Southern
States are either silcuced as before and
during the war, or else with Mr.. Bolts
they mean to try for their rights indie
pendentlv of the President.
The sad and stringent testimony Of
Mr.. Bolts and Of Ex-Governor Holden
OF North Carolina, neither of them
= Radicals" supported by the constant
evidence of private letters and of the
fisnkeSt statement of Southern Union
men. that should the military force be
withdrawn they could not continue to
live mt home the incessant assaults
upon freedmen's schools and teachers
the testimony of General GRANT and of
General SHERIDAN that military force
must be retained for long time vet in
the late disaffrc;ed S;ates-the ity
of the late rebel press, and the undoubt
ell facts, as Governor HOLDEN says, that
= the true Unionists are defect, cowcd,
prescribed, under the ban socially, pccu
niarily, and politically" should certainly
induce the President to consider whether
there NAV not be some better explanation
Of the situation than the radicalism of
Congress. A little radicaism is perhaps
natural and even parlonable under the
circumstances. Aud we have no doubt
that if the Executive sh ouId unswerv
ngly insist upon making treason odious.
not 10y hanging, impri'oning or confsca-
ting, nor by treating every man who
was in arms rs If he were a murderer,
bat by that firm preference of tried
fidelity which is perfectly ineligible and
practicable, the morbid turbulence of
tone in the late rebel section would abate,
the painful and prolonged rupture in the
great Union party wogld begin to heal,
aud the prospect of truly "restored
Union" would become mnch more prom
ising.