American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-08-29
The Gravity Of the Issue.

Union Republicans should take warn
ing that the politics Of our country have
thrown to the surface no combination of
men with such desperate intentions as the
Johnsonites, into whose embrace the Dem
ocratic party has cast itself. The Presi
dent himself is a desperate, and we are
sorced to believe, dangerous man
His revolutionary disposition there is no
doubling. The avowals and outgivings
IN his recent speech to the Philadelphia
Conveptionists, fully prove it. Without
strong moral principles, he is man Of
the description of will that is leading di
rectly to desperate expedients. lie is
prepared to lend himself to almost anys
thing to carry his points. Let no man
attempt to persuade himself that this is
an ordinary contest, or that these are or.
dinary times. In solemn truth have we
arrived at pass not less critical than
when. under Buchanan, treason first he
gan to develop itself This is no idle
alarm. Whoever looks beneath the sur
face, and estimates rightly the character
of the desperate man at the head OF the
Government, aud Of those around him,
will come to no other conclusion. This
is a contest, says the Richmond organ,
{" IN rhick all tie best fruits Cf the b'i.
umph ,oM be ours In other words, i
is contest in which those lately in arm
ed rebellion against the Government, and
who for four years made gigantic efforts to
destroy the Republic, have great expecta
tions Of gathering "tle best fruits o
triumph And what would those fruits"
be? The payment of the rebel debt, or
its reputation together with the the fed
eral debt. The opposition of the South
to the Constitutional amendments is based
largely on the fact that provision is
made .or the payment of the federal and
the reputation Of tho rebel debt. The
Somh has no idea Of paying one amleSs
both are paul This one of the things
which should be placed beyond contin
gcncy. 1t is precisely because the Con.
sti:utional amendments do place the whole
matter beyond contingency, and make
absolutely certain the payment of the fed.
eral and reputation of the rebel debt,
that the proposition is so fiercely resisted
by the South
In brief, the "fruits" which the baf-
fed rebels arc expecting to gather, are
those which it had been thought perished
when, at the cost of half million oflives
and three thousand millions of treasury,
the rebellion was crushed and victory
pelched on al our ba1gers
At no time within the last five years
has there cxi-ted greater reasons for Wig
lance on the part OF those who desire to
see this Government perpeiuated than
at this moment, The dangers are real
aud peculiar. Let the combination en-
tered into at Philadelphia succeed, let
the desperate purposes of the President
be carried out, and power transferred to
the hands of those striving for it, and
the national credit would go down like
the mercury when the thermometer is
transferred from hot to cold water.-
Herein are considerations which address
themselves to every man who has an in.
terest in having the public credit pre-
served-and who has nnt?-wth all the
force of an appeal wherein is involved
the question of life or death. Let no
man deceive himself as to the grave char
acter Of the issue,-PU. Com