The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-10-06
REu,RKs OF HON. JOHN SHERMAN,

am ABOUT TO StaCe one VI wv HIS 70
to show you how much was mlsled-
Judge Trumbull, chairman OF the Ju-
dietary Committee, framed this OIL, ana
the committee was composed OF the
ablest and best lawyers of this country,
among them Judge Harris, OF New
York. Judge Trumbull, himself a man
of great ability, reported without OBJ
lection the bill. Before the bill pass
ed the Senate, Judge Trumbul took it
to the President of the United States
and showed it to him, talked with him
about its provisions, and has recorded
his testimony of what occurred In that
interview. He pronounced it in speech
in the Senate, saying the President had
approved and sanctioned that bill be-
fore it was presented to the Senate
After the difficulty about the Freed
mems Bureau bill, after the civil rights
bill had passed, 1 went to President
johnson myself under peculiar clrcum-
stances. / had been invited by the
Union men of Connecticut to make a
speech in their approaching canvass
1t was circulating all over the country
that Mr.. johnson was about to prove
false to his party and false to his coun-
try, and that he was about to use the
vast patronage of his position to injure
the party that placed him in power. L
thought [ would ask him if there was
to be such conflict as that. He re-
ceived me kindly, and we talked over
the whole matter two or three hours
I will not undertake to say precisely
what was said by the President or by
myself in this conversation, but L say
to you, on my honor, that he left the i'm
preston on my mind as clear and as
strong as your faces now appear before
me that he would approve the civil
rights bill and sign it, further that if
any controversy sprung up between
him and the Congress he never would
appeal to the rebels and Copperheads to
come between US. Cheers. He ex-
pressed his desire that l should go to
Connecticut, and 1 went in the full wish
there would be no further controversy
between the President and ourselves
The only stipulation that the President
spoke of was this he said he wanted
the radicals, as he called them, to aban-
don negro suffrage and the doctrine of
State suicide. If these were given up
by that portion of the Union party, he
said he expected to approve the consti-
tutional amendment to be reported by
the Joint committee. That was the po-
sition of Andrew johnson then. went
to Connecticut, and what was my sur
prise and notification when l returned,
few days afterward, to receive from
the same President his veto against the
civil rights bill, and to learn that before
and at the time he held this converse
ton with me was cooperating and COM
bining with the Copperheads in the
State of Connecticut for the defeat of
the Union candidate.
The civil rights bill was vetoed, but
even then he did not give it up. John
son said he did not believe Congress
had the right to pass such a bill. We
waived that, or rather we passed it over
his head. What was the result ? That
civil rights bill is now dead letter
the President of the United State re-
fuses to enforce the Constitution of the
United States, which declares the law
making power shall rest with Congress
that we shall submit our bills to the
President, and if he disapproves them
he shall return them to Congress
vote shall Immediately be taken, and if
they pass by two-thirds majority they
become the law ofthe land. And what
is to be done ? A voice" Impeach
him." Cheers. What is the result ?
The white loyal people of the Southern
States are fleeing Northward the
whole rebel States are in the hands of |
rebels the attitude of acquiescence to
which the Southern people assume, af-
ter they were conquered in arms, has
been entirely laid aside, and the posi-
ton of conquerors is assumed by them. !
They are expressing the blacks in
every form, and the law which your Con-
gress, by two-thirds vote, passed to
protect these loyal people, is regarded |
as dead letter, and is proclaimed by
President johnson as null and void :; |
that is the condition in which affairs |
have been left by the unhappy difficult |
ty !; but let that pass. Even this is not |
so bad as something else have to say
about President Johnson.
IfMr. Johnson had co-operated with |
Congress in the settlement ofthese ques-
tions by the constitutional amendment,
we would not have cared for the Freed
mems Bureau bill or the civil rights |
bill, for the constitutional amendment |
would have secured these objects. His
chief objection to the civil rights bill was
that we had not power to pass it. We
took him at his word, and proposed to
appeal to the people of the United
States to give Congress the power to
pass it. Cheers.] We did SO, and
adopted the constitutional amendment
reported by the Committee on Recon
struetion, as modified by the Senate
and say to you that more liberal,
conservative plan, in the true sense of
that word, was never submitted to a
conquered people in the world. Zap
plause.]
The South must come to terms. Now
my friends, this is the spectacle pre-
sented between Congress and the Pres
ident of the United States. l do think
an impartial country will reason about
these matters, not as an idle thing
which does not affect them at all, but
like sober jurymen. 1t does seem that
the dispassionate judgment Of the Amer
lean people will be that we have done
all for the South that we ought to do,
and that they must now come to the