Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-12-27
The Pardoniag Power.

II
effort to curtail the pardoning power OF
the executive, or remove II entirely from
his hands. That the Chief Magistrate
of every nation should enjoy the priv
ilege of pardoning criminals, we firmly
believe, but when such officer abuses
that power, and turns loose upon the
community thousands of traitors, muir
derers, counterfelters and thieves, as
President Johnson has done, IL is high
time, for the good of society at large,
that a stay should be effected in the pro-
ceedings.
In his speech AT st. Louis, while en-
gagged in his swinging around the cir
Gle" electioneerlng tour, the President
boosted that he had issued more par
dons than had probably ever been grant
ed by any one man. This assertion, we
fully believe, at least so far as this
country is concerned, and while we con-
denim the President for his actions in the
| premises, we must ascribe him the credit
| OF being truthful in speaking of them.
But while he was thus boastful of his
alarming use g. the pardoning power,
he assigned no reasons for ~ oolng ana
must have left his audience wrSnt IN
establishment at the villainy Of one who
had been raised by the bullet of the as
sassIn to the executive chair of great
nation, and then by virtue of the powers
vested in him by Congress, had emptied
the prisons and dungeons Of the land OF
the felons and criminals which they con-
tanned.
And though, upon assuming the posi-
ton to which he had thus been accl-
dentally raised, he arlounced That
treason should be made odious and
traitors punished, "that rebels should
take back seats in the work of recon-
struction,n that he would become the
"Moses" of the negroes and lead them
out of the land of bondage, has been
recreant to all his fair promises, which
inspired the loyal hearts of the land
with so much hope, and he has virtually
sold himself to the enemies of the coun-
try, and the men which precipated upon
it the late calamitous rebellion, and
those who were the greatest rebels, or
who could boast of numbering the great
est number of freedmen, appear to be
the class who have received the most
favors at his hands.
Though tits easy enough to account for
the wholesale pardon of rebels, to further
''my policy" we cannot see, for the life
of us, what motive he could have in
view in pardoning murderers Of Union
soldiers,-murders committed I'M cold
blood-and the victims brave defenders
of the national honor. In addition to
these pardons so lavishly bestowed, one
can hardly take up newspaper with
out reading accounts of the Presidents
pardoning counterfeiters and other
criminals who have been convicted and
sentenced to imprisonment,not by court
martials, but by civil courts. How the
President can be so friendly to or
leagued in with counterfeiters or their
friends is more than we can understand,
and his clemency to them is unexplained.
Pardon brokerage is not carried on by
the Washington agencies for the benefit
of rebels, but in behalf of all grades Of
criminals, and the people are becoming
Justly alarmed at the wholesale dispen-
sation of executive clemency to the
worst offenders against our statutes, and
heartily approve Of the action of Con-
gress toward providing against its
abuse, as step in the right direction.