The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-23

avoid this Midsummer session. They
passed the Military Reconstruction
bills last March. The President vetoed
them on the explicit ground that they
made the military commander supreme
ana absolute over the people of the late
reoellious States. Congress accepted
his construction of them, and repasSed
them over his veto. They were cordial
ly Endorsed by the loyal people of the
North, and acquiesced in more readily
than had been expected by the people
of the South. Soon 1t became apparent
that under them loyalty would triumph
in most of the Southern States, and
then the President vetoed his
decision of his Attorney General,
that under these laws the mill
tary commanders were mere policemen,
subordinate to the Provisional Govern
mentS over which they had been placed;
the army but a posse conlitdtlLS, to en-
force the DEGREES of the rebel Governors
and Mayors, aud that every rebel was
to be his own register. The people,
surprised at these decisions, appealed
to the Congress in which they placed
such deserved confidence, to reassem-
BILE, and from Maine to California they
came hither to resume their legislative
\ authority, and to SO declare the mean
ing of their legislation that no legal
sophistrieS OF any Acknowledgement
could mistify it. Vetoed again, they
repassed il by vote of four to one, and
it has gone on the stRtute-book as one
of the laws, which the President, by his
constitutional oath, must take care to
have faithfully executed. Some L
! know, condemn Congress for having
done too much in its past legislation,
and some for having done too little; but
1 think II has struck the golden mean,
firm and yet prudent, courage
Gus without undue excitement, in
flexible and yet wise. The Presi-
| dent in his last veto denounces
this military despotism, as he calls 1t,
and declares that Congress has subject
ed the South tn a tyranny most lntol-
cradle. We have heard these charges
| of military despotism before, during
the war, from the party which so bitter
| ly opposed his election three years ago.
| Every act tending to strengthen the
Government, such as the suspension OF
the hdbenS corpus, trials by court-m
tial, and SO forth, was denounced as
| military despotism; but the people rem
dered their verdict and it could not be
reversed. Instead of tyranny, the key
note of the Congressional policy Is pro-
lection To all, and the vindication and
triumph ofloyalty, and God helping US
we shall stand by it until it is crowned
with triumph. tApplause.l will use
no word OF disrespect toward the Pres
ident, for although differing with him
in policy as wide as the poles, prospect
the office which he fills, and prefer ar
Rument to invective. When listened
OF the House, as he read the bold and
defiant message of the President,
III could not but feel that in the
whole of IL he arranged himself far
more than the Congress which he nd-
dressed. All parties agree that he
spoke correctly when, in his North
Carolina proclamation OF May. 1865, he
declared that all the civil Governments
of the South had been destroyed by the
rebellion. He then, without calling
Congress together, went on with the
work of reconstruction in the absence
of all law upon the subject. Has Con-
sress made State Governments subor-
dinate to the military power? So did
the President. Has Congress provided
for the calling of State Goyernments7-
so did the President Has Congress
authorized the ratihcationH-so DID the
II President But he ordered conventions
by his Executive fiat, and recognized
their constitutions without their being
submitted to the people. Congress re-
quired the people, the registered voters,
to call the Convention themselves, and
then TO approve or reject their work by
popular vote. [Applause.l Has Con-
gress required the ratification
of "a Constitutional Amendment? So
did the President. Has Congress estab-
lished test oath? So did the Presi-
dent. our crime 49, l. SuHpOSe1 bnhb W c
provided that those whom the nation
had made free should have the free
mans ballot for their protection, while
the President did not. But the results
of his policy strikingly contrast with
the result of ours. The nation looked
on to see what fruits would result from
his action and what they were. In
nearly every State the rebel power re-
sumed its authority and became domi-
nant in their executive, legislative and
judicial departments,-the vagrant ana
labor laws virtually re- enslaving the
emancipated, followed by murders, out
RACES, riots and massacTes, crowned the
whole. Loyal men were underfoot and
the revivitied spirit of rebellion WAS
triump hant. With our duty to our
country and on our oaths we could not
affirm and legalize this policy, and
since taken. Approved in the past
we have been. l cannot doubt
even a more triumphant endorse
ment hereafter. [Applause.l The
President appeals to the ballot-box {;
so do we, and by its decision we are
willing to stand or fall. In 1862, in the
darkest hour of the war, amid disaster
and reverse, the ballOt-boX sustained
us and returned Republican majority
| to Congress. In 1854 we were compelled
| to accept all the odium of consumption,
the heavy burdens of taxation necessa-
our flag flying In the held, the charges
of our enemies that men were being
drafted from their homes to free ne
groes, and the denunciations against
the war as a failure; but with the simple
motto of "Our Country" under the
| lead OF our noble President-would to
/ God he were living to day-we won
magnificent triumph. [Applause.J In
| 1865, when President Johnson turned
his back on the party which elected
him; trRversed the country making
speeches TO be read by millions, de-
nouncing US; with his whole Cabinet
against us, with but one exception, lap
plause and cries of "Stanton,"l with
The whole power and patronage of the
Government thrown in the scale OF
our enemies, we appealed again to
the ballot-bOx, winning the most
magnificent victory ever known in
our political history. Applause.l But
this will be eclipsed by the coming VIC
tory of 1858, when we shall place in the
offices of the Government men who
will be faithful to liberty, justice and
loyalty. We ask no more, and viii
accept no less, and this victory Will De
swelled by the votes ofthe reconstruct
ed South. When they return, as they
will, in accordance with the forms pre-
scribed in our legislation, they Will re-
turn with magnificent msjorities Tor
the right. [ApplRuse.l They Will come
back, led as they must be, by those who
have been faithful to the Union In Its
darkest hours. They will join with us
of the North, under the inspiring inhu-
ence of free labor and free men, in the
march of prosperity and power, and
will Join with them in 80 legtslating,
thai hereafter in this noble land there