The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-03-02
Terms So per annssan, in adrance.

the northern copperheads ON the other. As
sasaeious man, what further evidence can he
no.u1 in MS sober senses, that he is unfortu-
bTy sbnTiy, On ihe wrong track, and, therefore,
ne ne insists ON going ahead i'm that disastrous
uLce.lon, ni Then trust that Congress will stand
IKE an lmpregnable wall 10 prevent his doin0
so, come what may. NAY. more-I woud
nave that Dody wipe out from the slate ali that
ne mas done IN the matter If reconstruction.
anu peSSih the Work anew as alone constitu-
tionally empowered to inaugurate and nerfact
1t from the foundation to the top-stone. With
all Difference to his exalted position. I denv
the right o. President Johnson, under the war;
power, or any other power entrusted to him.
TO do anything more in rebeldom than to hold
it with firm military grasp until Congress
shall determine when, how and where cleo
tiOns shall be held, who shall be allowed to
vote, and what shall be the necessary condi-
tions precedent to the re-admission to the Un-
ion of the late self-styled confederate states.-
Those states are still reasonable in spirit and
purpose, and lack nothing but the power to
induce them to try the bloody game OF seces-
sion over again. They do not know-they
never have known-what it is to be 10y
al or truly American. Hence they are In no
sense qualified to have the Ielns Of govern
ment in their own hands, but must be held
under guardianship for an indefinite period,
their soil. -t
son this point President johnson takes is
sue with Congress, and with the loyal people
OF the country, upon whose sanction and sup
port Congress may rely with absolute certain
ty. He insists that those conquered but still
reasonably disposed states are in the Union
as ofoid, and, therefore, entitled to be immedi-
ateiy represented in both houses of Congress;
and he ventures to brand that body as not on
lu h11f nf6
alton, in refusing their admission without ad-
ditional safeguards as to their loyalty. Yet he
has not announced by proclamation, either
that the war is ended, or that peace Is restor-
ed; but continues to hold those states in sub
lection to Lis will as commander-in-chief OF
the army and navy, under the war power
suspending even to this hour the writ of habe-
as corpus; and thus condemns himself out OF
his own mouth, and fully vindicates the action
OF Congress- Congress, which, in the score
OF intelligence, ability, moral worth, exalted
patriotism, reverence for justice, and love for
impartial liberty, has never been equaled since
the formation OF the government. The usurp-
alton Is on his own part in attempting to bull
ly Congress into servie acquiescence to his
demands; for it is is the constitutional prerOg-
ative of that body alone to decide when and
how states may be admitted into the Union;
and it will not surrender that prerogatiye at
the bidding oil an accidental occupant of the
Presidential chair, even though all the powers
OF hell rally to his support.
For whatever of violence, or tumult or di-
vision or disaster, may grow out of this high
handed procedure, the dread responsibility
win rest exclusively on his own head, and he
will be held to strict accountability by an in
dignant and betrayed nation. In putting his
veto to the bill enlargng the means and use
fulness of that benefcent, Christian and truly
patriotic department, the freedmen's bureau,
he has, indeed, exercised right accorded him
by the constitution; but the animus which
pervades that veto, the sophistry which char
acterizes it and the unjust allegations contain
ed in it, will beperceived and pondered by the
overwhelming mass OF the humane, loyal, pat
riotic Christian men and women of the hand,
who, in their turn, will put an effectuaI veto
upon him and his pretensions to the end of
his earthly career. If there Is any disregard
OF the constitution; any disunionism in spirit
and design; any wish to pervert and overturn
our free governmental it Is not on the part Of
those who are execrated and abhorred for
their answering loyalty by the. Southern reh-
els and their North0rn sympathizers, but on
LIZ r.-st VINO is now receiving the plaudits of
those rebels and sympathizers universally"