Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1866-01-12
GUatrbman Il STATE JournaI.
BY f. p. WALTON.
MONTPELIER. JANUARY l2, 1865.

sorry because we sympathize with him IN his pur-
poee--that is, to protect the freedmen from their
ancient enemies and to secure for them their
rights as men and citizens. The difference is as
to the means to be used and not as to the end to
be secured. lie, in our judgment, oyerrates the
power of the Executive, and needlessly complains
that his power has not been effectively exercised
We look rather to Congress to devise the most
effective measures of defence and relief for the
freedmen in default Of right state action, and to
the President faithfully TO execute those
At the start our idea was that the Southers States
should abolish all distinctions in civil and political
rights, founded on race or color, and that Con-
gress should sternly refuse to admit those states to
the political privileges of the Union until they
had done So The adoption Of the amendment to
the Constitution has modified this view to this ex-
tent Congress has now the power to make the
freedom of the freedmen substantial fact by its
otcn action; and if il does So the states may be
admitted to seats in Congress as soon as il shall
appear that the action of Congress will be acqui-
esced in. We believe, with Mr. Hubbard that it
will not be safe to leave the freedmen to the con-
troll Of the states and we add that we doubt
whether giving them the right Of suffrage would
be a sufficient protection for them. They must be
protected by statutes paramount to state laws,
which Congress only can enact, and the President
must execute. Then as to their relief. take, for
instance, the freedmen who served in the army
the President can give them no bounty in money
or land, while Congress can do either and we
trust distinction will ever be drawn between
the black and the white soldier in that respect.
Perhaps one Of the wiseskthings to be done is to
give land bounty to the soldiers Again, take
the larger class-all the rest, indeed-all who are
now subjected to the gross outrages of which Mr..
Hubbard justly complains - who are landless,
homeless, moneyless, dependent upon eNacting
whites on leases or labor contracts the President
cannot give them homesteads upon the public
lands, but Congress can and that is another
great measure of relief, which we trust is speedily
to come. In short. Congress must see that the
free black man has fair play while in the late slave
states, and treat him with the same generous con
sderaton that has been conceded to the white
black man can relieve himself from his old mas
ter whenever he chooses to do So He must be
made master Of himself and independent of the
whites. When that shall be done, we shall hear
of no more outrages and the nation, we trust,
will not in such course call the vengeance of an
offended God upon it, Does Mr. Hubbard fear
that the President does not desire 20 have the
freedmen thus cared for, or in any other way con-
sstent with the powers of Congress ? We GER
tainly do not, and recent developments strengthen
the confidence in him that we have all along ex-
pressed
word as to the President and pardons. The
act of Congress, from which we quoted, was the
conhscation act. Its front bristles with penalties
aginst the rebellous. One hand held the sword of
justice (rather loosely we thought at the time),
while the other rendered the olive branch in the
section empowering the President to grant am
nesty and pardon to the repentant The credit of
that section belongs to our own great statesman.
the late Senator Collamer. What he desired, and
all des'ssd, i,.e vud rvpvinun ana war,
and bring back the Southern States and people in
peace to restored Union. He felt that penalties
alone would only make the rebeious more per-
sistent and desperate They must have chance
to avoid these penalties; they must have an in
ducement to lay down their arms and come back.
in the promise of pardon. The law was founded
in that reason and it has been executed in accor-
dance with its design, as a means to reconcile the
reheious to the government. President Lincoln
SO understood and therefore was liberal in execut
ing it. In his message of December 1864, he
said that " mo voluntary application had been de-
niedi" that is, he bad pardoned all who had
asked it. President johnson has been executing
the same law, and for the same purpose Of recon-
ciiation and though he has pardoned many, it
certainly cannot be said that he has pardoned all
who asked for pardon Not by thousands, we
suspect He has pardoned many and if we were
to look at these pardons as so many interierences
with strict justice, should say nearly all too
many. But the purpose of the law was not pun
isbment or justice, but reconciliation. The Con-
gress that passed that law never expected that
millions OF rebels were to be hung, or all their
property to be confscated 1t did expect that the
President would so exercise the parloning power
It he could as to bring the rebels into the haven
OF peace and plenty not to poverty and the
gallows. This is the true Interpretation Of that
act, and we think IL relieves the President from
the unfavorablc criticisms sometimes made ON his
hberality in pardons. We have personal knowl-
edge of the purpose of Senator Collamer in the
section as to amnesty and pardons; in fact he
prepared bill for the Senate to carry out his
purpose, and we, with his approval, prepared
another of like character for the House. Neither
OF these bills passed, but the provision as to par
don and amnesty was Incorporated in the bill that
did pass, and became the existing law on the sub
ject.
We do not forget the complaint of friend Hub
bard that the President has not waited for " works
meet for repentance" The repentance that Con-
gress wanted was the return of the prodigal and
rebellious sons to their fathers house in peace
Other conditions were not then much thought Of
But has not the President exacted pretty thor
ough repentanceY There was repentance for Sc
cession, by declaring it null repentance for war,
by abandoning the sword and repentance for
slavery, by abandoning it forever. Let us not
forget that President johnson has sternly insisted
that the rebel states should ratify the amendment
to the Constitution abolshing slavery, and that il
has been ratified, thus putting slavery forever be-
yond their control, and giving to Congress the
power to execute the Constitution by appropriate
legislation, so as to realize freedom as fact. We
must say that this is apractcal sort of repentance
which cannot be repented of The South never