Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-04-11

throughout the entire South. In such
violation of all the opinions he had ex-
pressed to me was this action, that l was
persuaded he acted on assurances that
by leaving all questions to the people of
| North Carolina, as he was doing, they
would of their own volition lat least ap-
parently SOY frame a government which
would be acceptable to Congress and the
sentiment of the country, and be an ex-
ample to the rest of the States whose
governments had been oVertbrown.
ANOTHER INTERVIEW.
Immediately after my return home re-
paired to Washington to receive those as.
surance from his own lips. 1 mentioned
my Boston experiences to him, and the
pleasure it had given me to explain his
motives and prevent unjust criticism
He did me the honor, for which l speci-
ally thank him now, to inquire the
grounds upon which | had rested my ar
guments. / referred him to his contin-
ued advocacy of the homestead bill, to
the energy with which he had pressed
upon me the necessity of breaking up
the large landed estates in Tennessee and
the entire South. recurred to his
pledge to the colored people of the coun-
try in his Nashville speech, that he would
be their Moses, to lead them to liberty,
and specially pressed the fact that l had
seen it announced that he had suggested
to deputation of colored citizens of the
District that had waited upon him, that
they should be prepared, when Congress
assembled, to memorialize it for the right
of suffrage in the District. He did not
then suggest, nor indeed has he ever to
me, as his friend, Col. Florence, assured
the readers of the Constitutional Union,
he has to others, that no such deputation
ever waited upon him or received such
suggestions from him. But, thanking
me for this evidence of my friendship,
inquired who the common friend was to
whom had alluded as coinciding in my
Judgment. When l informed him that
it was Major George L. Stearns, who had
been with him in Nashville for a long
time recruiting colored troops, he said
with much animation, "0h, yes, Major
Stearns; am not surprised to learn that
he should understand me thoroughly as
you do" Again assuring me of the ear
nestness with which he would advocate
the extension of suffrage to her colored
citizens were he in Tennessee, he said
the people would soon learn that the
same man, in different positions, might
have different duties to perform; and
that while he would give all his personal
influence to promote the extension of
suffrage, he did not feel that he had
right, as chief Executive officer of the
country, to force it upon even the people
of the rebellious States, and added that
he wished the people to be made to un-
derstand these things.
THE PRESIDENT FALsIFIEs HIS STATEMENTS.
Accepting the request of the monarch
as a command to his subject" made it
my business, Immediately on my return
home, to state the Presidents position to
the conductors of all the journals with
whom 1 had any acquaintance, and, a
few weeks later, was much PANIED to
learn from at least one of them, that l
had somewhat impaired my reputation
as a competent reporter of conversations
by the fact that the position ] had an
nounced the President as occupy
ing had been expressly disavowed. You
may, therefore, imagine the pleasure
with which some months later carried
to that gentleman the printed letter of
Major Stearns, indorsed by the President,
containing a correct statement of a con-
versation had between them, in the
course of which he had used precisely
the language had, months before, re-
ported to him as having been used to me.
1t may not be improper to remark, in
passing, that it is well for the Majors
seasibllities that he got the President to
indorse his statement before he published
it, as heard him remark the other day,
to a group of gentlemen, that Mr.. John
son had falsifed, without exception, eve
~ assurance he had given him in the
course of their protracted interview.
he EXPECTS THE RADICALS TO SLOUGH OFF.
But why should you be surprised at
this? Has he redeemed any one of his
public pledges, and are there not scores
of gentlemen whom he has thus en-
trapped and aienated? On the 28th of
September last, Senator Wilson addressed
the Union men of Philadelphia in Ma
tional Hall, and told them that on the
preceding day the President had assured
him that the suffrage and other questions
were, in his opinion, open for discussion
within the party, and that he would not
discriminate between the members on
account of the opinions they might ex-
press on points that had not been settled
by the Baltimore Convention. On the
Sd of October, within a week, as We are
assured by those gentlemen, he informed
Messrs. Glenni W. Schofield and Morrow
B. Lowry, of this State, that his policy
was fixed, that he had not told Mr.. Viii
son that he did not intend to support his
policy by the influence of his patronage,
and that he expected the Radicals TO
slough off," But why trace so tortuous
a course? Could do so with safety to-
my country, would gladly strive to bury
in oblivion the unblushing tergiversations
of our Chief Magistrate. But the peo-
pie should understand their Presidents
character and purposes, for it IS against
themselves that he is endeavoring to ex-
cite them. He would make them be-
lieve that Congress-the peoples branch
of the GoVernment-Whichis is surrendered
into their hands at the end of every sec
ond year, has for sinister purposes sub
nitted itself to the control and leader
ship of few dangerous men, and that
he alone represents the popular will; 10
the public this is q new cry. To lndIVld-
uals it is an old story. He would make
the people believe that there has been
something in that action of Congress
which was intended to embarrsss him
But individuals know how ingeniously
and persistently he has sought to impair
confidence in those Senators and Repre-
sentatives upon whom Abraham Lincoln
leaned with most implicit confidence
and that. so early as July, when he had
been but three months in office, he
shocked an eminent divine, whose good
offices he had invoked, by saying that he
''held the extreme men of the North as
responsible for the war as those of the
South, and that he intended to organize
a party that would exclude both" Tho
he had thus early adopted this design, it
was not until last month that he publicly
avowed his intention of Furnishing North
ern Radicals and putting them down as
we have put down the traitors at the
South. Mississippi was the State OF the
Union that had the smallest per cent OF
colored people who could not read or
write, or owned real estate; and 1t was to
the pardoned traitor whom ne calls Gov
ernor of Mississippi that, on the 18th of
August he privately telegraphed the way
to play a little trick by which to em6ar-
rass the Radicals and divide the Union