The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-08-14
THE END OF THE SESSION
The Spirit and the Work of the First
Session of the Thirty Ninth Congress.
Review of the Policy of Reconstruction.

Review of the Policy OF Reconstruction.
When the Thirty Ninth Congress assembled
at Washington, December 4, 1865, it found
the national affairs in unprecedented confu-
sion Seven months before the President had
declared all armed opposition to the Govern
ment ended. For nine months Congress had
not been IN session. When it adjourned March
4, the war still ragged Sherman was sweep
ing through North Carolina, and had not yet
reached Fayetteville. Sheridan was moving
up the Shenandoah. beating the Rebels under
Gen. Early on his way to Lynchburg. Peters
burg and Richmond still bristled with Rebel
guns and Grants vast army lay mud-bound
before their walls. Lee was appealing tc the
people of North Carolina for provisions, and at
the same time the Southern press was loudly
. boastiug that Grant and Sherman would be
beaten in detail. No Que could certainly say
when the war would end though all knew
that the end was near. Recruiting, stimulated
by an overhanging draft, was proceeding in
the North, and the Rebellion presented bold
and defiant front. Abraham Lincoln was still
President, and on the very day of its adjourn
ment the Senate was convened in extra session
TO take part in his reinauguration. None Of
the men who listened that day to the lnaugu-
/ raj Address of Andrew Johnson imagined that
! in a few weeks he would become the head Of
the Government. The future was bright. The
clouds of war were dispensing, and the Thirty
/ Eighth Congress endedats existence in the
/ faith that our National troubles were nearly
over and trusting implicitlyin the ability and
integrity of the President, who by four years
of war had been thoroughly tested and taught
For nine months the administration of the
/ I 70 ha truc aH tl he FYpcn-
tive alone, yet no one dreamed that the Ma
tonal Policy was to be reversed.
| Hardly had the Members of Congress reach
ed their homes before the whole country was
! filled with rejoicing over the fall OF Richmond;
and, triumph after triumph, came the surren
der of Lee and his whole army. Then the
shoutiugs, the tumult, the tbuuders of thou
sand cannon, were siienced by the single pis-
tol-shot that ended the life of Abraham Lin
/ coin. Even while his funeral procession pass
ed slowly through the land, Sherman received
from the hand of John son the last broken
sword of the Rebellion. The terms he grant.
ed to The enemy Bele thought tar too lenient
by the people, and were instantly rescinded
! by the new President. Then a few persons
inSulted Congress by declaring that God had
removed Mr.. Lincoln because q sterner mind
was needed for the work of reconstruction, as
if, like poor politician, Heaven was only to
succeed in its purposes by the assassination
of a good man. Still, the nation felt safe with
Mr. johnson. Had he not said that treason
was crime that must be made odiouS, and
that traitors must be punished? He would
hang them as high as Haman, he said, but
the vail of the future was not yet lifted to re-
veal only the foul asSassins, and Wirz, the
| wretched tool of worse men, swinging npon
the gallows No one looked forward 10 the
long. wearisome imprisonment of jeff. Davis,
and the humiliating spectacle of Govern
ment afraid either to try or release its chief
enemy. The people had not yet recovered
! from the shock of Mr.. Lincolns death before
/ a Presidential proclamation, dated May 2,
offered a reward of 500, 900 for Jeff Davis,
ard charged him with melting and procuring
the assassination. His arrest speedily fol-
lowed, and the rebel leader was placed in
Fortress Monroe, and up to this t1me the ter
ri6le charge has never been withdrawn nor
proved, About the time of his capture, the
President in repeated speeches declared that
the attempt to assassnate the Republic was
a greater crime than the murder of an indi-
vidual, and deserved as severe punishment
In this spirit May AZ, he apoiogised for ex-
tending mercy to certain miscaled "Sons of
Liberty" in Indiana, and hoped that his action
would not be construed into preference Of
clemency to Justice. His Proclamation of
Amnesty followed, May 20, and excepted ID
classes, in which were intiuded nearly all the
influential Southern citizens. 1tfully carried
out his announced policy of dealing severely
with the leaders CT the Rebellion. Early in
May the trial Of the assassins began, and an
effort was made by the prosecution, in behalf
of the Government, to prove Davis pre-cog-
infant of the crime. From all these events
it was reasonably supposed that the President
would continue TO enforce the stern principles
which he had so often and so emphatcaIIy
defended. .ns
But before midsummer a new policy was
| Indicated. In June delegates from the South
/ were first admitted to private interviews with
the President On the 18th Of June his proc
lamatiou providing for the restoration of civil
government in Georgia and Alabama was is
sued, and it disappointed the nation, by its
deliberate exclusion Of blacks from the cate
CORY of loyal citizens entitled to vote. Few,
however, were disposed to censure Mr. john
son severely for this omission, though a ma
jority of the Union party held that the Gov
ernment had perfect right to entrust State
reorganization to all loyal citizens, without
the slightest reference to the dead laws which
were based on the slave system. Other inti
nations Of opposition to the established prln-
/ iciples of the Union party were soon given
! The Presidents appointments of Provisional
| Governors for the Southern States were re-
ceived with Joy by the late Rebels, and with
sorrow by the North, Governor Perry, of
South Carol ma, shortly after his appointment,
said in public speech, July 3, 'There is not
now in the Southern States auy one who feels
more bitterly the degradation of going back
into the Union than I do" These words
alone, it was thonght, should have secured
his instant dismissal from olfiGs, but they
we're coupled with significant praise of the
President-praise which properly interpreted
was censure. Governor Perry assured his
people that the death of Mr.. Lincoln was no
loss to the South, while he had overy hope
THAT Mr..J Johnson, as an old slaveholdng Dem