Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-09-20

Pennsylvania, a few days ago, IN which lie
reviewed the course of the President, and
applied TO him some Of thOse1beautlfut ep-
ithets Which It Is perfectly proper for the
leader of the Radicals ITO Indulge in, but
very much to be reprobated in anybody
else. Yet 1hel condemns Congress for its
shortcomings, beeausBit did nOtlcome fully
up to his views IN their policy toward the
South, and ne announces that he Intends to
press his policy In Congress at the next
| session; and he don't despair. of sucCeed-
| ing yet, and II the elections this fail show
| that the Radicals will have the ma jOrity in
the next Congress; therei is nm doubt he
will belas good As his word. What Is this
policy? He assumes this: That the South
lost all Its rights, and that the people even
| forfeited their lives-even- their right to
| life ana property. Every single State lost
all It's rights under the Constitution, ande
therefotey these States must be treated as
conquered territory What does he prD-
pose to do with themp Why, confiscate to
pay the National debt. ..1ppu0 9t'a
He says that debt will amount to five bill
lions of dollars, And. now, If you will
turn to the census returns, you will find
that The entire property of the South does
not amount to live billions of dollars. Is
not this a monstrois proposition! He
would take every particle 1of'property ia
the South, everything that stands between
these people and absolute starvation, leHv-
| ing eight millions Ofipeople homeless aud,
houselesss After thus deprivng these peo-
| pie of everything, he assumes we would
have q harmonious Government. Upon
what does he claim this right? He claims
that the conquerOrs can takeaeyeryth thing
the conquered may have; that conquered
| people forfeit everything, even their lives I;
and he fallstO quoting law toshoW,t that this
| Is thepraetice OF nations. There was time
In barbarian ages when no prisoners were
taken In war, but even then women land
children were spared. According to Ste
vens! we have the right, the absolute right,
| to put every human being TO the sword
| from here to the Gulf of Mexico, and con-
| fiscate their property. 1t was very seldom,
even in baTbarous ages, that such things Oc-
curTed. The last. instance of "a sweeping
confiscatlon was by William the Conqueror,
of England, eight hundred tyears since.
Even he, btyrant and invader, dared not
do what ,Mf3 Stevens has proposed to do.
| That is his plan of reconstruction for the
restoration Of tho Union. ,l~.im-ih hsl uni
| But he ia not contente(l with that. He is
not very blootlthirsty, he says. He goes
for the property, That gives me occasion
to remark, that bad as tile Southerd people
must have felt when Lee and Johnson sur
rertdered, they didtI't feel half 80 bad as the
Radical leaders felt. AWendelEPhillips said
the war would fail of its purpose if it didh't
last twenty years. Why did he want it to
last so long? Had not enough of blood and
tears flowed to satisfy even Moloch? !?
"But," said these men, at stopped too
soon;" and merely. for this reason, that
they toresaw that Che American people
would not allow them to 90 down South
and graspall the property Between this and
| the Gulf of Mexico The-war stopped too
soon, said men who. when it began, had the
constable after them, but who came out of
| it worth millions. ] could name one man
in Philadelphia who was not worth hun
dred thousand dollars before the war, who
now returns an income upon millions.
Men who were growing fat and rich on
cotton in the South, felt they were de-
| trauded because they could not contiseate
all the rest! Thcse men howl because they
could not play apart Of William Willis the the Cjti-
Let me ask YOU as sensible men, whether
the policy Of the, Radicals or that Of Presi
dent Johnson Is most likely TO perpetuate
this Union? Yes, but say some, the South
were lately in rebellion against the Gov
ernment. Undoubtedly the Southern peo-
pie made u great mistake; undoubtedly
they have erred; but it is undoubttd that
no people ever suffered more terrlblYfOr
that wrong. Remember you ara now set
| ting a precedent; beware 1t don't come
back upon you. In 1851 the South rebelled.
In 1872 New England bhrratenedwar, and
nothing but the termination of the war
with old England saved those States from
attempted secessiOn! Who, can say that
we may not be il7treated, or fancy we are
Il
may not do Just what every people do ull-
der those seicirUumstlhces, try to throw Off
what we consider usurped authority? AS
| you treat those people down there, yOu
may be treated in time-to come. Let no
man say, we are better than other people,
that the Northern people could not rebel.
But they did rebel once against England.
| while | am not saying one word to palliate
the Southern rebellion, [ do say oletnojman
hug the idea to his heart that he is so patri-
otic, so wise or Christian, so good, that he
may never get into such a difficulty, just
las you set example IN references to the
SOuth, SO you willibe treatedin case Of any
such difficulty ,nRm7') @ sgW .mgh %
Let me ask il, we, are in this free Govern
ment, in this Christian land, so great for its
| literature and common schools, to adopt
the barBarous code 0f aABhousand years
mode of settling diiRe,l4ties? mo, no."l
i hope not; .for,if We do, don't talk any
more about pr9gress. 1t would be, that
progress downward, of which the Bible
speaks. These people can not be treated
badly with perfect inipunity.I 1&tt 7gsn o
-Letme illustrate this by another thing
| Whatldo we see here r Here are thirty-siX
States in the, Union. ThirtY-six States have
been admitted into the Uirion. When did
they get out? How did they get ibut?--s,
Why, every party inathe North, with the
exception OF, a few men, psignificant, in
number, support and declare the principle
that no State has a right to secede; chat the
ordinances of secession were mlb and void
Then these thirty-six States, having been,
admitted into the Union.- are in it yet, not
withstanding their, ordinances Of secession.
This principle was recognized and declared
by the Baltimore Convention that nomina-
ted Linc6ln and Jehnson! The President lsl
denOunced,as a traitog, fors0oth, denounced
as an Rpostate, for recognizing this princi7,
pie, and yet the very, first resolution In the
Baltimore platform recognizes the fact
that these ordinances are null and v0id,
and that all theiStates are in, and have pevc
er been out of the Union, and pledges the
party to it. ,,,
ft'is' Che first duty of every A6iericah
citizen to aid In preserving theintegrity6
the Union. says this b rasnlUCionvi Not d
Union Of the loyal States, or apart ,9G, the
States, but a Union of all the States IN a
Union that includes all the lthirty-SiX
States. We hear great deal of talk of the
tebellion, ana about, how traitors should be
punished, You .co6ld not punish these
h9u as ctraitors sif thew weTAi Yfi1ikf Hflthp