Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-03-15
THE VETO MESSAGE.

out the country. When we remember that
the Freedmen's Bureau has been in exist
ance for a year, operating under the Presi-
dents direction, that much that was done
under the law was without authority, that
the law expires in May, and that the chief
purpose of the bill which has been vetoed
was to legalize the acts of the Bureau, and
extend its operations until Congress should
see proper to discontinue it, the conduct of
the President, III the premises, seems
strange The more 50 too, that he has adj
mitted the necessity of the further Contin-
nance Of the Freedmen's Bureau, by favor
ing its passage through Congress, and
since the veto message, by authorizing its
chief to keep it III operation, for which act
he had no sanction of law and, az if to
make his inconsistency still more glaring,
he declares as the first objection to the
bill, " that there is no immediate necessity
for the proposed measure" 1t may we'll
be asked, il this be true why is the Presi-
dent called upon to authorize it's cOntinu-
ancc ?
When the President says " share with
Congress the strongest desire to secure to
the Freedmen the full enjoyment Of their
freedom and their prosperity, and their en-
tire independence and equality in making
contracts for their labor" he is certainly
taking a strange way of showing his re-
gard for the blacks, by vetoing the very
measure which was designed to protect
them against fraud and outrage For the
President knows very well, as does every
man of common intellect in the country,
that persistent effort has been made by
large majority of the southern people, since
the war, to oppress, to defraud and injure
in every possible way, the negroes and
that the main object of creating the Freed
mems Bureau, was to counteract this hos
tile legislation, and individual barbarous
treatment He knows too, that the effici-
ency of the Bureau in this respect, has been
very great and that it required all its
power and energy to thwart the devilish
policy and Internal practices of the rebels
President destroys this only means of de-
fence, while he proposes to be anxious
about the welfare of the blacks. How can
he reconcile such palpable Inconsistency
Then the President complains that the
agents who are to be appointed by the
Freedmen's Bureau, and who are to decide
upon questions arising between the rebels
and their former slaves, may be stran-
gers, entirely ignorant of the laws of the
place and exposed to the errors of iudg-
ment to which all men are liable" Is this
not singular objection Does the Presi-
dent expect to appoint any man to office
who is not liable to the errors of Judgment
common to all men? AS we look at it, if
he will adhere to such rule he will never
make any appointments. Is this objection
not the prompting Of caprice or passion?
Again, says the President d" let us not
unnecessarily disturb the commerce and
credit and industry Of the country, by de-
claring to the American people, and to the
world, that the United States are still in a
condition of civil war" So that by passing
a law regulating the Freedmen's Bureau,
we declare to the world " that we are still
in condition of civil war !" What an in
ference to draw from this act He must
have been hard pressed for arguments to
sustain his veto. Is he in earnest in this
Does he think any one believes he is?
And further, the message says that the
Freedmen's Bureau was one of the many
great and extraordinary measures to sup
press formidable rebellion" This will be
news to many. The rebellion was about
crushed when the bill passed creating the
Freedmen's Bureau, and before the law was
fairly in operation, the rebellion was really
at an end yet, according to this message,
1t was one of the measures projected to
crush formidable rebellion. Marvellous !
and in the next paragraph the President
says, " the institution of slavery for the
military destruction of which the Freed
mems Bureau was called into existence as
an auxiliaryP What wonderful measure
this Freedmen's Bureau is In one place
1t is colled into being to suppress formid-
alb e rebellion, and in another, for the mil
itary destruction of Slavery" And pray,
what is meant by the military destruction
Of Slavery? This portion of the veto mes
sage is too deep for us.
But why follow up the frivolous, not to
say ridiculous preteXts which are given us
as reasons for this veto message. To say
that they are embodied in great State
Paper emenating from the President of the
United States, and that President elected
by Republican votes, is humilating enough
to us. Those Of our readers who wish to
see more thorough exposition of the
weakness of this veto message, should read
the able speech Of Senator TRUMBUIL. 1t is
an overwhelming reply
Only a few weeks since the President de-
clared in substance that in the main he was