The Greene County Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 185?-1867, 1866-05-30

nv W"S hOIilluhlGu.
The Republican party have only them
selves to blame for his being President.
When party, in nominating a Vice
President, chooses to take for granted
that the President will not die, it does
not deserve much sympathy, as a party,
when disappointed, The mills of God
grind on, aud grind to powder the par>
Ties which prefer expediency to princl-
pie,
And now the President and Congress
stand before the people with a great il.
sue between them, on which the destiny
OF the nation depends. You, your chill
dren and cbildrens children, to the latest
generation, are interested IN having it
decided rightly. 1t must not be left to
the President and Congress as q private
quarrel, it must not he left to political
parties out of which to make party
capital. The issue is not whether the
President on our side, or members of
Congress on the other, have been most
nasty with their tongues and injudicious
IN speech. The question is,-'What
does justice require to be done 2 This
nation standst to day under great oblga-
tons. We have taken by the power of
the sword, four millions of men and
women from the hands of their masters.
We are under obligations to God and
man to see them through this transition
state, -Four millions OF people cannot
remain standing in the highway. But
they own no houses, nor lands-where
then shall they go? "Foxes have holes,
and the birds Of the air have nests" but
here is great multitude who are like
the Son OF Man in this, that they have
not where to lay their head. They are
willing to work, but they have to work
TOR those who have always robbed and
rlundered them. Ought they not to
have some protection against their in>
justice and cruelty7 The President
says, No leave them to their old mas,
ters. They will treat them justly
Congress says, Yes they have claim
on the nation for protection. Let us
protect them, not by the sword, but by
aw-just, equalla law 1t prepares law,
establishes the Freedmen's Bureau. The
President vetoes it. Itprepares another,
the civil rights bill. The President ve>
toes it.
Now, l have nothing to say to the OBJ
jections made by the President and his
legal advisers to the details of these
measures. They may be sound objec,
tons, sufficient to justify these vetoes, or
they may not. | no not say it is bad
thing to have these bills defeated. do
not know that it would be any advan>
tage to the freedmen to have the Freed.
mans Bureau, if all its officers were to
be appointed by the President and those
sympathizing with him. 1t might have
become great instrument of oppression.
| do not think it necessary to call the
President hard names. 1t is what he is,
poor white man of the South, Border
State man, man brought up to despise
and dislike the negro. A man educated
in an ignorant hatred of the North and
Its institutions. He Is well-meaning
man, but having that weakness which
consists with a strong, filtul will, "a power.
tul and passionate nature, dlmly lighted
by the sight of any large truths. He
has no definite plan, no clear convic-
tlons, no consistency. He declared him
self ready to be the Moses of the colorsd
people, andhe has proved their Pharaoh
He saw andapproved, ,Qhere is every rca-
son to believe) the Freedmen's Bill, and
then vetoed it. In April, 1865, he said,
Treason is crime, and traitors should
suffer its penalties 1t must be made
odous and traitors must be punished
and impoverished Their great planta-
tons must be seized and divided into
small farms, and sold to honest and ir-
dustrious men, But since he has been
President his whole treat ment of traitors
has consisted in pardoning them. In
October, 1865. the President told Mai
Stearns OF this city, that he was in
favor of negro suffrage under certain
limitations and that he should try to
introduce it gradually into Tennessee, if
he were there. just before April 1865,
he told q crowd in speech, that he was
ready to give the freedmen the ballot.
lie advised Mississippi to give the ballot
to every colored man who could read,
and to all who had fought for the Union.
Now, he thinks all attempts at giving
citizenship to the negro dangerous and
wrong, Mr. Johnson is not a strong
man nor deliberately bad man but a
man ambitious to reconstruct The Union