American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-07-18

For one, do not doubt the result. -
Shall Rebels settle their own terms o.
coming back to govern us? Shall they
reascend 70 enlarged and Increased pow
er, using as steps the graves Of the Union
dead Z Should not Congress. whose sol
emn duty it is to see that the Republic
suffers no evil, pause. before the bitter
foes OF yesterday are admitted to the inner
sanctuary of the nations life. Ought
they not to guard the halls of National
legislation from being trodden by the
feet of those who have been numbering
the defenders of the Union for fidelity
tosan allegiance they themselves so wick
edly repudiated ? Every newspaper in
the land, North or South, which eulogiz-
ed Jefferson Davis, and vilifed Abraham
Lincoln. now denounces Congress in the
severest terms. Every unrepenteut Rebel
and unscrupulous sympathizer joins them
in their revilings. But I rejoice that it
has been so faithful, so inflexible, in
what it has regarded as the pathway of
Duty and of Right. And it now remains
for the people, by their Endorsement or
rejection of its proposed Constitutional
guaranty,to approve or to condemn those
who present 1t as an indispensable pre-
requisite to the restoration of the forfeit
ed rights and the political power our en-
emies made such hot haste to resign and
ablure at the opening of the Rebellion.
Nor are these terms oppressive or un :
just. Never has nation whose exist
ence has been imperiled, and whose hun
dreds OF thousands of graves and thous-
ands of millions Of debt attest its gican.
tie sacrifices, offered moro lenient condi.
tlons to those who conspired for its
destruction Have we forgotten the in
sulting defiance with which their members
sworn like ourselves TO the Constitution
and the Union, left their seats here-the
prosecutions, eOnscriptions, tyranny, ex-
pulslons and hangings by tie Rebel au
thorltles of all who refused to forswear,
like themselves, their allegiance to their
country and their fag-t the willfultorture
anG starvation of scores of thousands of
our soldiers when prisoners in their
hand-their unyielding persistency in the
parricidal conflict till armed rebellion
expired, not from change of will but from
poverty Of resource aud the heroism of
the loyal boys in blue-the continued
existence OF this hostile feeling as evil
deneed in their political and social pro
scnptlon ofevery Southerner who fought
for his country, the disloyal utteranees
oftheir press and pulpit, and the election
IN every Rebel State of Governors who
had served or fought for the Rebellion
Despite all this, Congress only asks that
representation, North and South. shall
be based on those eligible to participation
IN political power, that the civil rights
OF all persons, native born or naturali.
zed, shall be maictained the National
debt and the Pension list preserved invi-
olatej the Rebel debt repudiatsd; aud
exclusion from Office OF those who hay-
ing once taken and broken an oath of
fidelity to the Nation could not be trusted
In the faithful fulfllmeat hereafter of
another similar obligation.
Contrast this with the course of our
fathers toward those who, during the
Revolutionary War, refused to fight for
the independence of the Colonies. The
Tories of that day insisted that their
allegiance and loyalty were due to the
hiog, and that they should not be COM
PEELED to transfer them. But the stern
patriots who founded our Government
would tolerate no such argument. De-
termlned to create a pure national senti
ment, they made Toryism odious in every
possible way. They admitted none of
them TO seats in the Congress of tho
Nation against which they had walred.
They allowed no floral professions to the
graves of the Tory dead, nor the u c of
such pretexts for treasonable speeches Of
eu ogy on their lost cause. They suffered
no Tory papers to exist and scatter their
malignant poison over the land Thev
DISTINGUISHED and expatriated them
Such was the Reconstruction policy of
our fathers. es.
Strongly ip contrast with this as is the
Reconstruction policy of Congress, so
mid and forgiving of the blackest of
crimes, not for revenge but for defense,
not for punishment but for justice, our
Democratic opponents have arrayed them
selves against it, and the people ale to
decide the issue. IF you would take on
board as crew to work your ship those
who had just been striving to scuttle aud
destroy it, then it might be believed that
the American people would throw open
the doors of their Congress and intrust
appropriations for pensions and the pub
lie debt, and legislation for all matters of
national concern, to those who sought to
whelm the nation in common ruin. and
who, if they had the power to-day would
shatter the Republic and rebuild their
Confederacy.
In 1854, when the Democratic Nation
al Convention at Chicago resolved that
the war was failure, and demanded an
Immediate cessation of hostilities by our
armies, thus waving the white flag of
surrender, y efferson Davis, the President
OF the Rebel conspiracy, waited, and
watched for the result with the deepest
anxiety. The magnificent uprising of
the people destroyed his hopes; and, with
the resistless blows of our gallant soldiers
his wicked cause went dowu. Now, in
1856, A. FL. Stephens, the Vice Presi-
dent of that treasonahlal lo..a ,,:,ot;n,,