, 1867-02-08
A General surr,nae,.

II, as some eontsnd, the President ,houla n.
impeaehed for differing With oongrsssia matters
Of opinion, and for haEing IDEAS Of his own. what
what punishment should be msted out 10 a
Congress which bstrays the people BY deliberate
y sacrificing one Of thsir most cherished priuci-
Ples, ey attacking the Institutions Of the Nation,
and By surrendering everything for which the
people fought for during the war against rebel,
honf According to the telegraph, Congress or
greater portion OF II, propose 10 territorialize
tue south. This plan is justified on the plea that
that thsy-~srS ngrvTEa anu IGuvP1HGenT
States, ,butby the fortunes Of war have been subs
iected 70 our domination. II these States ever
were, In legal sense, foreign, they became 90
not BY force Of arms-for they were defeated 10
battle-but by their legislative Acts of Seces-
SION and therefore those acts must have been
legally right. This Is what a large portion of
Congress virtually assertsI that the Southern
States possessed the legal right aud power to
seeede. But in what position does this Con-
grsssional assumption leave the people and Gov
ernmentr Il throws upon them the onus of haV-
ing prosecuted an unjust aad unrighteous war
for, If the Southern States possessed legal right
TO secsds We certainly had no moral or other
right to make war upon them for asserting their
rights. Congressional action under the dictation
Of Stevens, proposes TO justify the oft-repeated
copperhead and rebel assertions, that tbs war
was wicked aud unjust. Not only inferentially
does Congress propose to condemn the people,
but in its new plan Of reconstruction, in plain
words, admits the existence Of the right Of Sc,
eession BY providing that II any Of the Southern
States, after being admitted to . represen tation
10 Congress, shall again withdraw from the Union
their rsPresentation shall cease. Aud is this to
be the end OF all II Are these to be the fruits of
that stupendous war which the people fought
against the right Of secessiou2 Having cons
.quered the enemy al the expense of thousands
Of millions Of treasure and hundreds of thous-
ands of lives are the representatives Of the peo-
pie to be allowed to solemnly declare that thev
were dsfsated-thAt the ideas of Toombs, Davis
L Co. have triumphed, while those of Lincoln,
Grant and Sherman have been destroyed When
the people supplied men and money to overthrow
the armies Of Lee and Johnston, they did SO in
the firm belief that the Southern States had no
right to Secede, that the Southern people were
engaged in a rebellion against the lawful aus
thoriiy of the Government of the United States.
On no other hypothesis than the one that the
people Of the South were engaged in an unjust
rebellion, can the war against them be justiAed.
The destructionists in Congress now say, in eff
feet, that the people Of the South were not co.
gagged in q rebeIiionI that there were no rebels
down there; that they are foreigners; that their
States became, to all intents and purposes, for
eign States by virtue of their legislative Acts of
Secession; and, by inference, Congress seeks to
condemn the loTAl Beople Of tba Nnrih fsr their
conduct during tue last SIX years. 70 assert oy
legislation, that JEFF. Davis was right and Lin
coin was wrong; aud that so far as the principles
are concerned, Generals Lee aud Johnston were
the Victors, and Generals Grant and Sherman
the vauquished. This is what Congress now
seeks to do; it is not only proposing to betray
the people, but to heap ignominy and infamy up
on them by asserting in solemn acts of legisla-
ton that they were engaged in an unjust and
illegal war. The political ideas of Calhoun are
to be legalizsd; the Resolutions of '9S are to be
transferred to the statute books OF the nation
Vallaudigham L Co. are to be justified by Act
of Parliament. All these things are to be done
by the plan ofterritorializing the South, and the
reasons that are argued in its justification. Let
US hear no more abuse of the President for par
doning rebels let US have no more talk about
rebels-for, according to the theory on which
the new Congressional plan is based, there has
been 20 rebellion; there are no rebeis-uuless,
perhaps, the term applies TO those who fought
against the doctrine Of secession and its eonse>
nuences-C r. Call.