Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-02-13
Why does not Congress Act,

why does n0l Congress Act!
Ibis Is question more easily asked tina
answered and we confess ourselves who'll
unable to give any answer to it which is ne
humiiating to the Radical majority in tina
body 1t has been two years since Mr. Johr
son went to work at his plan of reconstruct
ing the South. 1t has been more than four
teen months since Congress had an opportu
nifty to go to work on ats plan of reconstruc
ton. The President has pursued his pla,
with an energy, persistence and success
"a mlschievous success-worthy of bette
cause Congress, refusing in a hundred
ways, and generally by an almost solid Re
publican vote, to recognize the President
work as anything but pernicious usurpa
ton, has donefpractically nothing toward re-
construction 1t still does nothing. 1t re
fuses to give the South or the North the
benefits of the Presidents plan, yet it offers
nothing in place of it. Its work is all mega
tive 1t lacks every element of strength. ex-
cept the power of resistance 1t has accom-
plished nothing except to keep things stand
ing still
The Democrats and President johnson saw
this element of weakness in the attitude Of
Congress, and attempted to take ADVANTAGE
Oh IL In the elections last fall !; and the PEG
PIE so much prefer something positive to
something only negative, prefer action to
mere resistance, motion to merely standing
still, that, had it not been for the aid given
the Republicans by johnson, Seward & Co.
while swinging round the circle with their
dIsSraceful and drunken exhibition. the cleo
lions last fall might have terminated quite
inherently from the result which they did
reach But Congress will make a great mis-
take IT 1t suppOses that the verdict at the
polls last fall was an unqualified endorsement
OF itself. 1t was an approval of Congress
In resisting executive control, and in refusing
to agree to the executive scheme of recon
struction, but 1t was not an approval of Con-
gress for having had no plan of its own.
The people demand positive reconstruction
OF the South by Congress, one which shall
give justice and equal rights to all-one which
shall give no quarter to the Presidential
usurpation which has worked SO disastrously
In It's two years experiment
Congress cannot shirk the responsibiIitv
for the present evils at the South. Primarily
the President is responsible for it, but sec |
ondarily Congress is criminally remiss in per- |
hitting it to continue. When patient is |
suffering from the prescription of quack
the. regular physician should throw the poison |
into the fire, and make a new PRESCRIPTION. |
Congress has said the sick South was dosed
with poison administered by one who had |
no right to prescribe, yet it suffers the poison
to be given every day, and tries to neutralize
Its perniclous effects by wordy decoction
OF resolutions and proposed constitutional
amendments, which as yet have served no
good purpose whatever. When Congress be-
gins to reconstruct the South from the found
alton, 1t Will begin to work to some purpose
At present its strategy is modelled quite after
the Mcclellan pattern, marching and coun-
termarching, ditching and fortifying to keep
itself from being captured, instead of boldly
attacking the enemy If this policy is con-
tinued, by and by we shall see discontinue
and defeat of the Radical plan of reconstruc-
ton as signal and as irretrievable- as the re-
treat OF Mcclellan from Richmond
Congress must become aggressive in this
matter OF reconstruction, or it may as well
give up the fight first as last 1t is already
more difficult to reconstruct the
South than it was year ago johnson and
'he rebels are strengthening their posi- ton
every day. They have the Supreme Court,
Ind they know how to use it, They have
he courts in the South and will use them.
They have governments in operation which
Ire at least de faeto, if not de jlre, and must
be recognised sooner or later, unless replaced
~ others. Congress cannot forever prevent
he southern states from being represented
II the Supreme Court were called upon to-
lay to decide respecting the state govern
nents organized in the rebelIious South. it d
Gould not fail to say they were de 6acto state a
governments and 1t would rightfuIly say SO
90. They must stand, in all their glaring
INJUSTICE to the Union men, white and black.
Unless Congress asserts its power and puts
ew governments in place of them
The people and the press ought, then, to
urn their attention to the criminal and fatal V
eglect OF Congress to do its duty Wendell
Hihps uSeu 10 say tnat PRESIDENT Lincoln
-as pushed up to his assaults upon slavery II
y the bayonets Of the people Let the peo- P
lie and the press bayonet Congress up to
ais work We have wasted ammunition p
nough upon the President let US turn our it
uns upon a Radical Congress that spends p
teen months in doing nothing to advance OF
he righteous reconstruction of the Union. til
ct the people demand action. The goth ar
ongress has stood upon the defensive, forth tn
ing against the wooden guns of the Execu- tn
We, long enough contenting itself and ed
nusing the people by passing bills over the til
xecutive veto, which have nevertheless been ha
practically imperative though they had lg
.ver been enacted. If it does not agree FRI
BON measure of reconstruction radical and pr
CROUCH, it will pass into history as con tn
mptible as Legislative body as Mcclellan
w is as military chieftain. do
Di
Reconstruct ion. 40