Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-10-03
Address of the National Union
COmlniitee 10 the American
People

People
Feiisw Citizens Very grave differences
having arisen between your immediate Rep
resentatives in Congress and the President,
VINO owes his position to your votes, We are
impelled to ask your attention thereto, which
they render imperative.
We shall avoid the use Of hard words.
OF these there has already been too many.
And, that the matter in issue may be brought
within the narrowest compass, let us first elm
mate from the controversy all that has al
ready been settled or has never been in dis
pute.
The Republic has been desperately assailed
from within, and its very existence seriously
imperled. Thirteen States were claimed as
having xiihdrawn from tho Union, and
we're represented for years in hostile Congress
meeting at Richmond. Ten of those States
we're, for time, wholly 10 the power of q
hostile confederscy; the other three partially
SO. The undoubtedly loyal States were re-
peatediy and formidably invaded by rebel
srmes, which we're only expelled after obsti-
nate and bloody battles. Through four years
of arduous, desperate civil strife, the hosts Of
the rebel Confederacy wlthstood those OF the
Union. Agents of that Contederacy travsrsed
the civilized world, seeking allies In the war
against the Republic, and melting the rapa-
cious and unprlncipled to b. cut armed cor
sars to prey upon her commerce. BY State
authority, and IN the perverted names OF pat
rlotism and loyalty, hundreds OF thousands OF
! our countTymen were conscrlptec into Tebel
armies and made to fight desperately for
national disruption ana ruin. And though, by
the blessing of God and the valor and constan-
cy of our loyal people, the rebellion was finally
and utterly crushed, 1t did not succumb until
il had caused he destruction Of more than
half million OF precious human lives. not to
SPEAK OF property 10 the value of at least five
billion OF dollars.
AT length, the rebel armies surrendered, and
the rebel power utterly collapsed and vanished.
WHAT then ?
The Claim of the insurgents that they either
now re acquired or had never forfeited their
constitutional rights to the Union, including
that of representation in Congress, stands in
pointed antagonism alike to the requirements
VI Congress and to those of the ssoihs Presl-
dent Ii Was the Executive alone who, after
| the Rebellion was no u.ore, appointed Provl-
! siOnai Governors for the now submisslve, IN
| armed Southern States, on the assumption that
| the rebellion mad been revolutionary" and
had deprived the people under its sway of all
civil government, and who required the assem-
bhng of "a Convention, composed of dele
rates tc be chosen oy that portion of the peo-
pie of said State VINO loyal TO the Unlted
SIates, and no others, for the purpose of alter
M and amending the Constitution OF said
State" Ii was President Johnson who, so
late as October ast-wnen ali shadow of overt
| resistance 10 the Union had long since disap-
peared-luslsted that It was not enough that
State which had revol ed must recognize her
Ordinance Of Secession null aud void from
the beginning, and rarfy the Constitutions
Amendment prohibiting slavery evermore, but
she must also repudiate every dollar OF in-
1ebtedness creaied TO aid IN Carrying on the
Rebellion" IL was he who ordered the dis
PERSON by military icrce of any legislature
CHOSEN under the Rebellion which should as
sumo power 10 make laws after that Rebellion
nad f-llen. Ii was he Who referred to Con-
gress sill inquiries as to the probability OF Rep
gessntatlves from the States lately In revolt
beng admitted to seats in either House, and
suggested that they should present their ere
dentlnls, not at The organization OF Congress,
but afterward. And finally, it wss he, and not
Congress. who suggested to his Governor,
Starkey of Mississippi, thst
"I Ii YOU could extend the elective franchise
to ali perso Of color who read the Con-
stitution of the United States in nliIsh and
write their names. and 10 all persons of color
who own real estate valued at not less than
$3.50 and pay taxes thereon, you would com :
pietely dis2rm the adversary, and set an exam
pie that other Stsles would follow"
right Of the loyal States to exact conditions
and require guarantees of those which plunged
madiy INTO secession and rebellion, the sup
port.rs respectively Of Andrew Johnson and oil
Cons ress, cannot be antagonist parties to that
contest, since their record places them on the
, same aide.
1t being thus agreed that conditions oi
restoration and guarantees against future re-
belon may be exacted OF the States lately IN
revolt, the right OF Congress to a voice in pre-
| ,cribiug those conditions and in shaping those
guarantees is plainly incontestable. Whether
it takes the shape of law or of q constitutional
amendment, tee action of Congress is vital
Even if they we're to be settled by treaty, the
ratification of the Senate, by a two-thrds vote
would be indispensable. There is nothing in
the Federal Constitution, nor in the nature oi
the case, that countenances an Executive mo-
! nopoly of this power.
What, then, is the ground of complaint
again,t Congress?
Is it charged that the action of the two
Houses was tardy and undertaking? Consider
how momentous we're the questions involved
the issues depending Consider how utterly
), silent and blank is the Federal Constitution
touching the treatment of Insurgent States
d whether during their 6sgrant hostility to the
, Union or after their discontinue. Consider
: with how many embarra .sments and Difficult
. ties the problem is beset, and you will moi
wonder that months were required to devise,
i perfect, and pass, by two-thrds vote in Ell
+ ther House, just and safe plan of reconstruc-
ton.
Yet tha, plan has been matured 1t ha,
passed the Senate by 33 to IL, and the House
: by 1873 to SO. 1t is now fairly before the
} country, having already been ratified by thu
Legislatures of several States, and rejected By
none. Under it the State of Tennessee ha
been formally rest ored to all the privileges sh'
forfeited by Rebellion, including represen.
: tation In either House of Congress. Ane
/ the door thus passed through stands il
;. v,ingly open to all who still linger with
b. out.
s Are the conditions thus prescribed intolera
e BILE, or even humiating !? They are in sub
+ stance these
L. Ali persons born or naturalised in thi
country are henceforth cilizens Of the Unitet
, States, and shall enjoy all the rights of citizen
20 evermore and no State shall have power q
" contravene this most righteous and necessar
E. provl.ion.
H. While the States claim and exercs
, the power of deny ing the elective franchise t
. a part of their people, the weight of each Stat
nt in the Onion shall be measured by and base
IL upon its enfranchsed population. II an
State shall choose, for no crime, TO deny pc
&c litical rights to any race or caste, it must q
o. longer count that race caste basis o t p<
n iitical power in the Union.
i. Ill. He who has once held Office in th
!, strength of his solemn oath to support th
:. Federal Constitution, and has neverthele,
q foresworn himself and treacherously plotted I
subvert that Constitution, shall henceforth hol
ia no political Office till Congress, by two-thirc
vote. shall remove or modify the disability.
Nv. The National Debt shall be no vi,