The Portland daily press., 1866-10-15
m on. John f. POiier's Letter of Resigna.
liOm. U-.l III

tiOn. I'D
The following letter has just been made pub
lie. 1t has the clear ring which used to mark
Mr.. Potter's speeches in the House, and deals
as plainly with the President as its author on a
memorable occasion dealt with Mr.. Roger A.
Pryor Mr.. Potter's remarks on the influence
of the Presidents course upon the public mind
in Canada, deserve especial attention:
81 U. S. CONSULATE GENERAL, b. N. A p,
Montreal, Sept. 20, 1866
TO the President of the United States:
SR:-But little more than two years ago,
your illustrious and honored predecessor, the
lamented Lincoln, conferred upon me without
solicitation the position of Consul General for
the British North American Provinces, which
l have held up to the present time. .c,b
When came here, the fearful conflict of
arms, from which our nation has but recently
emerged, was still in progress, and found a
very large party in these Provinces, led ON by
rebel emissaries from the South, and encour-
aged by the political organs of the Canadian
Government, animated by bitter hostility to
the Government of the United States, and
loud in the expression of their desire that the
Union of the States should be severed, and
our national power forever destroyed.
Their sympathy with rebels in arms against
us was warm and Outspoken. They had with
them in active cooperation the provincial
Judges, and the courts over which tbey presld-
| ed, with a very few Neutrality-suspicious.. The
press in the interest of the administration was
daily filled with the most bitter and violent de-
nunciations of our Government, and with
| the yilest personal abuse of its then hOnored
| chief ta a sei4a
| After his assassination and on your accession
| to the presidency, this slanderous abuse was
| transferred to yourself and became especially
| violent and unsparing after your enunciatiOn
| of those patriotic sentiments in relation to the
| guilty instigators of the bloodshed and strife
which had deluged our fair land with the best
| blood of the nation, in which you declared,
that the men who gave their influence and
means to destroy the Government should not
participate in the great work of re-organiza-
| ton; that those who brought this misery upon
| the State, should not be permitted to control
its destines; that il this were allowed, then all
| the precious blood of our brave soldiers and of
| icers will have been wantonly spilled, all the
glorious vicrories won by our noble armies go
Tor naught; and all the battle-fields, which
have been sown with dead heroes during the
| rebellion, will have been made memorable in
vain." ~ i 4 slfH
As proof of the intensity of the feeling /
would respectfully refer you to the vile charge
publicly made in the newspapers Of this city,
over the signatures of two OF the leading men
| of the rebellion then resident here, against
| yourself as having instigated the assassination
OF President Lincoln. As soon, however, as
you had indicated radical change in your
policy toward the rebels, a change almost as
great and astounding was apparent here
! among those to whom 1 have alluded. Those
men who continued to vilify, Islander and abuse
| Mr.. Lincoln up to the time of his assassination
including the rebel emissaries from the South,
who came here to incite murderous raids upon
| the peaceful citizens of the Uuited States, are
now your warmest admirers, defenders and
friends Even the notorious DIR. Blackburn
who attempted to spread yellow fever and 9TH
er infectious diseases among the patriot sol
diers of our noble army, and who sought to
compass the death OF President Lincoln by
the same fiendish MEANS has recently given in
his adhesion to your policy and announced
himself as your frienu H
Your recent violent foundations of the
Congress of the United States, a coordinate
branch OF the Government of which you are
the chief executive, as traitors and enemies of
the Union in speeches made during your re-
cent progress through the country, have inn
parted new life and renewed vigor to all those
adherents of the Southern rebels now domi
ciled in these Provinces, and are most heartily
applauded by every hater of Republican lnStl-
tutions resident upon British soil.
Under such circumstances, and believing
that your policy will inevitably lead to disas-
ter in the restoration of guilty men to even
more than their former power in the ad-
ministration of the Government, my po-
sition has become most notifying and
intolerable to me, and as l cannot pos
sibly defend your course against the daily
censures of the few good men here, who were
true to our Government through all its past
dangers and perils, would esteem it great
favor to be relieved from my present position
at your earliest convenience. ~
Respectfully your obt serv't,
JOHN f. POTTER