Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-08-01

close oftheir labors, they are about to return
to their homes. AS Holy Writ declares that
he who taketh off his armor has more right
to be proud than he who putteth it on,
value this mark of your regard more highly,
because our work being completed, you mean
by it swell done good and faithful servants" +"
(Applausc.)
Congress sincerely desired to avoid this
midsummer session, and they passed the
Military Reconstruction bills last March, -
The President vetoed them, on the explicit
ground that they made the military COM
manders supreme and absolute over the peo-
pie of the late rcbellious States. Congress
accepted his construction of the acts, and
re-passed them over his veto. They were
cordially indorsed by the loyal people of the
North, and acquiesced in more readily than
has been supposed by the people ofthe South.
Soon it became apparent that under them
loyalty would triumph in most of the South
ern States, and then the President vetoed his
own veto, and promulgated decision Of his
| own Attorney-General,t that under these laws
| the military commanders were mere police
men, subordinate to the provisional govern
ment over which they had been placed-the
army but posse cOnlitdtuS to enforce the
DEGREES of the Rebel governors and mayors,
| and that every Rebel was to be his own reg
lister.
The people, surprised at these decisions,
appealed to the Congress, in which they
placed such deserved confidence, to re-as-
semble, and from Maine to California they
| came hither to resume their legislative au-
| thority, and to so declare the meaning of
| their legislation that no legal sophistries of
| any attorney general could mystify it. Ve-
| toed again, they repassed II by a vote of four
| to one, and it has gone on the statute book
as one of the laws which the President, by
his constitutional oath, must take care to
have faithfully executed Some, / know,
| condemn Congress for having done too
much in its past legislation, and some for
| having done too little, but think it has
struck the golden mean, firm, and yet pru-
| dent; courageous, without undue excite
| ment intlexible, and yet wise. The Presi-
| dent, in his last veto, denounces this mill
| tary despotism, as he calls it, and declares
that Congress has subjected the South to
| tyranny most intolerable. We have heard
these charges of military despotism before,
during the war, from the party which so
bitterly opposed his election three years e.
Every act tending to strengthen the g.,-
ernment such as the suspension Of the ha-
beas corpus, trials by courts-martial, and
so forth, was denounced as military des-
potism but the people rendered their V
| dict and it cannot be reversed. Instead .l
| tyranny, the keynote of the Congressional
policy is protection to all and the vindica-
| ton and triumph of loyalty, and, God help
ing us,we shall stand by it until il is crown
ed with triumph. (Applause.l will use
no words of disrespect towards the Presi-
| dent, for although differing with him in
policy as wide as the poles, respect the
office which he fills, and prefer argument
to invective. When l listened yesterday
to the Clerk of the House, as he read th'
| bold and eefiant message of the President,
could not but feel that in the whole Of it HI
arraigned himself far more than the Con-
gress which he addressed.
All parties agree that he spoke correctly
when, in his North Carlina proclamation, of
| May, 1865, he declared that all the civil gov
ernment 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 Congress made State
governments subordinate to the military
power? So did the PRESIDENT Has Con-
| gress provided for the calling of State CON
I vontions ? So did tlie President Has Con-
gress authorized their ratification? So did
the President! But he ordered conventions
by his Executive fiat, and recognized their
constitutions without their being submitted
to the people.
Congress required the people, to register
ed voters, to call the conventions themselves,
| there to approve or reject their by popular
vote. (Applause) Has Congress required
| the ratification of constitutional amend
ment? So did the President. Has Congress
| established a test oath? So did the Presi-
| dent.
Our crime is, suppose, that we provided
that those whom the nation had made free
should have the frceman's ballot for their
| protection, while the President did not. But
the result Of his policy strikingly contrasts
with the results of ours. The nation looked
on to see what fruits would result from his
| action, and what were they? In nearly
every State the Rebel power resumed its au-
| thority, and became dominant in their ex-
4 ecutive, Legislative and judicial departments.
| The vagrant and labor laws, virtually re-
enslaving the emancipated, followed, and
murders, outrages, riots and massacres crown
ed the whole. Loyal men were under the
foot, and the revivified spirit OF rebellion
was triumphant. With our duty to our
country and our own oaths, we could not
affirm and legalize this policy hence the
| Legislative action we have since taken. APP
proved in the past as we have been, cannot
doubt even more triumphant Endorsement
hereafter. The President appeals TO the
ballot-box, and so do we, and by its decision
we are willing to stand or fall.
In 1862, in the darkest hour of the war,
| sustained us, and returned republican ma
jority to Congress. In 1864 we were COM
PEELED to accept all the odium of conscript-
| ion, the heavy burdens of taxation necessary
| for our national credit, and to keep our flag
| flying in the field. The charges Of our enc
mics were that men were being drafted from
their homes to free negroes, and they de-
nounced the war as failure but with the
simple motto of sour Country" under the
lead of our noble President(would to God he
4 were living to-day, we won magnificent
triumph (Applause.) In 1866, when Pres
ident johnson turned his back on the party
which elected him, traversed the country,
Il making speeches to be read by millions, de-
nouncfng ua, with his whole Cabinet against
us with but one honored exception, applause
and cries of ''Stanton') with the whole
power and patronage of the government
thrown in the scale of our enemies, we ap
pealed again to the ballot-boX, winning the
most magnificent victory ever known in oui
political history.
: But this will be eclipsed by the coming
: victory of 1868, when we shall place in the
: offices of the government those who VIII DC
, faithful to liberty, justice, and loyalty. we
ask no more and will accept no less-and
the victory will be swelled by the recon
structed south. When they return, as they
f will in accordance with the terms prescribed
in our legislation, they will return with large
g moiorities for the right. (Applause.) They
r viii come back, led, as they must be, by those
e who have been faithful to the Union in it
darkest hour. They will join with us of thu
$ North, under the inspiring influence of free
: color and free men, in the march of power
r prosperity, and progress; and we will ioii
Q with them in so legislating, that hereafter Ii
t this noble land there shall be no man so poor
= so humble, or so obscure, that he cannot lool
up to the American flag as his unfailing pro
! lection; and with the ballot, which shal
t yindicate his rights, in his own right han'
y (applause) all the loyal people shall 50,
n amen. (Applausc)
q "A question of time-asking lady he