The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-02-22
THE VETO MESSAGE AGAIN.


rated partizan Democratic administration
Forthe views then expressed we claim mere
ly the sanction Of our own judgment per
sonally, and don't assume to make ereet
for our readers, or our party or to express
the convictions Of the senior editor of this pa
per, who is absent.
We have claimed the right of freedmen I,
protection; that the promise made by ABRA
HAN LINCOLN, that the military and naya
power of the government should be used t,
enforce the guarantees of his proclamation
should be sacredly respected. Were ther,
any avowsl in President JOHNSON message
that the government is poweress in the prem
ises, and that the freedmen should be remand
ed to such wrongs and oppression as late
slaveholding masters may see fit to impose
without restraint and with no redress for the
colored man, then might the heart of the De
mocracy rejoice, and not by expressed word
or by intimation, direct or remote, would We
have uttered sentiment favorable to the
Presidents message. But he does not do it.
He says ~ have, with Congress, the strong
est desire to secure to freedmen the full en-.
joyment Of their freedom and their property,
and their entire independence and their
equality in making contracts for their labor -
The Democracy would abolish the Freed
men s Bureau as at present constituted The
President urges, however, not that it be
abolished, but that it is sufficient in its opera.
tions for the protection of freedmen:
81 am not, therefore, able to discern in the
country anything to justify an apprehension
that the power and agencies of the Freed
mems Bureau, which were effective for the
protection of the freedmen and refugees du-
rug the actual continuation of African servi-
tude, VIII now, IN time of peace, and after
the abolition of slavery, prove inadequate to
the same proper ends"
And in concluding land we pass no opinion
upon the soundness of his assumptions he
says:
Reasoning from the Constitution itself, and
from the actual situation of the country
feel not only entitled, but bound, to assume,
that with the federal courts restored in the
several States, and in the full exercise of their
functions, the rights and interests of all classes
of the people will, with the aid of the militia
ry, in case OF resistance to the laws, be es-
sentially protected against unconstitutional
Infringement and violation Should this ex
pectation unhappily fail, which do not an
ticlpate, then the Executive is already armed
with the powers conferred by the act Of March,
1865, establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, and
hereafi er as heretofore, he can employ the land
and naval forces of the country to suppress
instructions and to overcome Instructions to
the laws.
Here, then, is no disclaimer or denial of
the duty and right of the government to pro-
tect the freedmen. Here is no animus of
hostility to the negro and gratuitous assump-
tion of his incapaclty to enjoy freedom such
as is characteristic of the Democracy. Mr.
JOHNSON, conceding the duty and right to
which we have referred, differs with major
ity of the Union party in Congress, as to the
best method by which that right and duty
should be exercised. He differs too, upon
some grounds, which we have shown, with
our own personal convictions of steadfast and
unqualified republicanism, we can endorse.
Had e denied, IN toto, the duty and right
claimed, then were there radical difference
and an impossible chssm between the Union
party and himself But conceding these and
differing only as TO the mode of their exer-
else, we have, SO far, merely as his action
upon this bill is concerned, an instance oi
what occurs between persons of the same
party in every committee meeting and every
caucus-difference of opinion on modus op
erai,di.
As to a system which sends the military
and civil appointees of the President through
an indefinitely long time into every neighbor
hood petty officers dressed with little bre
but arbitrary authority, and prejujced and
ill-advised and irresponsible judges-that
system we think vicious as permanent feature
of Federal administration. 1t breeds petty
despotism, strife, injustice aud oppression il
administers one sided justice in one neigh
borhood it will be unjust to whites and in an
other it will wrong the blacks; there will be
no equality in its administration. At least
such are the tendencies of the system. We
cannot hope that this measure would avoid
the evils that all history shows belong to such
consular government. st 49,
Here is difference between the Presiden
and Congress, not upon principles, but pro
cesses. But what is there in this to disinte
CRATE the great Union party under whose
supremacy the country was saved; or to plac,
President JOHNSON in the attitude of the lead
er and special President of the party of North
ern sympsthizers and Southern traitors?
With Congress rests the matter of recon
struction, and embracing legislation for th'
protection of the freedmen. We believe tha
the rights of the people, white and black
should be asserted and their wrongs redresset
by courts and due process of law. That fo
redress all classes should go into the halls o
justice and not to petty agents, upon whos'
caprice or whim redress shall depend and
fromwhose arbitrary dicts lies no appeal. To
assert the impossibility of adapting civil pro
cess and judicial remedies, the administration
OF the laws, to the protection of all our people
Is monsrous The President seems to think
that II the freedmen were remanded even nov
to the courts IN the South, they would be suf
fciently protected. We DO not share that be
lief The justice that they would get from
Southern local courts would be mockerv
would be such protection as the hawk gave {,
the doves. But we believe that Congress. h,
properly amending and modelling the judic;
airy act, and insisting upon such State judicia
amendment as may be necessary, can SO thro,
guards and defenses around all the emanci
IL r.1 -
the courts they can get speedy and effectus