The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-09-07
LOYAL SOUTHERNERS' GONVEN'
TTON.

read from the Presidents desk, intro
ducing it with the remark that it had
been unanimously agreed upon by the
committee appointed to prepare it;
THE APPEALAoF THE LOYAL MEN OF
THE SOUTH TO THEIR FELLoW-cITI-
ZENs OF THE UNITED STATES.
The representatives of eight mil
lions of American citizens appeal for
protection and justice to their friends
and brothers in the States that have
been spared the cruelties of the rebel
lion and the direct horrors OF civil
war. Here on the spot where freedom
was proffered and pledged by the Fa
thers of the Republic, we lmplore
your help against a reorganlzed op-
preston, whose sole object is to remit
the control of our destinies to the
contrivers of the rebellion, after they
have been vanquished in honorable
battle-thus at once to punish us for
our devotion to our country and to
entrench themselves in the official
Notifications of the Government.
Others have related the thrill
ing story of our wrongs from
reading and observation. We come
before you, as .unchallenged wit
nesses and speak from personal knowl-
edge our sad experience. If you fail
us, we are more utterly deserted and
betrayed than if the contest had been
decided against US, for in that case
even victorious Slavery would have
found profit in the speedy pardon of
those who had been among its bravest
foes. Unexpected peridy in. the
highest place of the Government, ac-
cidently followed by one who adds
cruelty to inhumanity, and forgives the
guilty as he proscribes the innocent,
has almost extinguished the revenge
of the beaten conspirators, and now
the rebels who offered to yield every
thing to save their own lives are
seeking to consign us to bloody graves.
Where we expected a benefactor, we
find prosecutor. Having lost our
champion, we return to you, who
can invoke Presidents and pun
ish traitors. Our last hope under
God,9is the unity and fitness
of the States that elected Abraham
LINCOLN, and defeated JEFF. ! Davis.
The best statement of our case is the
APPALLING, yet unconscious confessionof
Andrew Johnson, who, In savage
hatred of his own record, proclalms
his purpose to clothe four millions of
traitors with the power to impoyerish
and degrade eight millions of loyal
men, Our wrongs bear alike on all
races, and our tyrants, unchecked by
YOU. will award the same fate to white
and black. We can remain as we are
only as infamous victims We may
fly from our homes, but we should
fear to trust our fate with those who,
often denouncing and defeating treas
on, refused to right those who have
bravely assisted them in the good
work. Till we are wholly rescued,
there is neither peace for you, nor
prosperity for US. We can not better
Ldefne at once our wrongs and our
wants than by declaring that since A.
johnson affiliated with his early slam
derers, and our constant enemies,
his hand has been laid heavily upon
every earnest loyalist in the South.
History, the just judgment of
the present and the certain con-
frmation of the future, invite and
command us to declare that after
rejecting his own remedies 3 for
| restoring the Union, he has re-
sorted to the weapons of traitors to
bruise and beat down patriots; that
after declaring the South reconstruct
ed he has practiced upon the
maxim that none but traitors shall
rule; that while in the North he has
removed conscientious men from of
fee and filed many of the vacancies
with the sympathizers of traitors, In
the South he has removed the proved
patriots and selected equally proved
and convicted traitors; that after
| brave men who had fought for the
/ old flag, have been nominated
for positions, their names have
been recalled, and avowed re-
bells. substituted; 20 that every
original Unionist in the South
who stands fast to Andrew johnson s
covenant, from 1861 to 1866, has been
ostracised; that he has corrupted the
loyal heart by offering premiums for
the defiance of the laws of Congress
and by openly discouraging the OBJ
servanee of the oath against treason
that while refusing to punish one SIN
gle conspirator, though thousands
! had earned the penalty of death, and
more than thousand of Union citi,
zens have been murdered In cold
blood since the surrender of Lee
and in no case have their assasslns
been brought to judgment; thai
ne has pardoned some Of the
worst of the rebel criminals North
and South including some who have
! taken human life under circumstan-
ces of unparalleled atrocity; tha
T while denouncing and lettering The
operations of the Freedmen's Bureau
he, with.full knowledge of the false
hood, has charged that the black mel
are lazy and rebellious, and has con
cealed the fact that more whites thar
blacks have been protected and fet
by that noble organization; and tha
Ii