The Portland daily press., 1867-05-08
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND s4
Wednesday Morning, May 8, 1867.


| deal with an open, undisguised enemy. A
hostile foe, in an open, stand-up fight, where
the rules of honorable warfare are observed
always challenges respect. Such am enemy
one knows how to meet, from him he knows
what to expect, and when conquered he knows
what to do with him--to treat him as pris-
oner OF war, entitled to all the consideration
due to persons in his position.
But it is not thus with disguised enemy
clothed in the uniform of friend, and wav-
| ing before him the flag under which you your
self go forth to battle. Nor is the treatment
due to such, when detected, that of the pris-
oner of war, captured in open, fair, legitimate
battle. The spy is entitled to no considera-
ton. no mercy; drum-head court, file Of
soldiers and volley of musketry, with a band
to play the death march, are all that he can
| claim.
Now it is not simply when the actual clash
| of arms is heard, that the most important bat
ties are fought. The conflict of ideas is often
more important than the conflict of arms
Reconstruction, which is . work of peace, 10
far more delicate, difficult and perhaps impOr-
tant than the work Of destruction, which is
the work of war. Anybody can destroy only
a few men are gifted with creative OF even re-
creative ability. I'VE can hire substitutes to
| fight when only brute force is demanded, but
money will not purchase the brains which
alone can build up the fabric Of Liberty, &C.
| menting every stone to its fellow and making
| of the completed edifce well-compacted and
| symmetrical whole. .4-
Such a peaceful warfare, such conflict of
| ideas such work of recreation is now going
on. The barbarism of past age and the civ
| ilization of the present age have been in dead
| ly conflict. The result is what all reasonable
| men should have expected. The system of
barbarsm has been overborne, and the black
| cloud of slavery and oppression has been roll
ed back. The freedom and enfranchisement
of several millions of people more in number
than were made independent by the American
Revolution-necessarily disclose much chaos,
confusion and debris that need to be cleared
up or cleared away before the foundations of
symmetrical temple can be deeply and Sc
curely laid. This clearing process is now 60
ing on, and laudable efforts are being put forth
to enlighten the newly made citizens so that,
in the exercise Of their rights order may be-
may be avoided. All over the South the i'm
portance of the Freedman's vote is under
stood by those who would resist the progress
sive spirit of the times as well as by those who
would shape the republic in harmony with
that spirit The Democratic party, with scarce
ly an exception resist all forward movements.
They would keep the newly-enfranchised ne
gro in ignorance, close against him the school
house and the ballot-box, and as he has right
to vote in spite of them, they would so control
that vote as to make 1t contribute to the re- in
statement of his old oppressors and to his own
subordination in the political and civil as in
the social state. The Republican party, hav
ing secured the freedom of the negro, are
bound to see that freedom protected, and this
can be done only by his enlightenment, and
the intelligent exercise of the elective fran
chise To this end, Senator Wilson and 9TH
ers have gone down South, to fight the battle
of ideas where the evil to be removed exists,
and there to discuss the principles Of govern
ment and the duties of the citizen, and in 50
doing they are entitled to the profound re-
spect and commendation of all patriotic men
That Democrats should assail them is to be eY-
low and oppose them by arguments and facts.
But what shall we say Of professed Repu6li-
can journals That join IN the Copperhead cry
against such efforts as those which Mr.. Wilson
is making, and would fain persuade the freed
men that the right to vote is q small privilege
which they would do well to overlook in their
efforts to provide for their mere animal wants!
And yet there is such journal in New York,
which flies the Republican flag at its column
head, and wears the uniform of the army of
Union and Liberty, and still is laboring in all
sorts of WAYS to preserve the old landmarks,
monuments and distinctions at the South, and
joins with the Copperheads in traducing those
who are laboring to secure the very results
to which the Republican party stand pledged
before the American people. 1t is an enemy
within the Union lines; a spy in the Republic
can camp rendered powerful for injury to the
Republican cause and to equal human rights
only by its outward professions of attachment
to that party. ..... stiaiiti i.i..Ei iHa re-
u. From a late number of the paper referred to
we clip the following: ........-...-3A "a ,l.a'
( The advice rendered to the freedmen of Mis-
sissippi and Arkansas by Gen. Ord might be
offered to the same class with advantage by
other officers commanding in other districts of
the South. While giving them full and clear
information as to the facilities which will be
afforded them for exercising their rights as cit
izens, at the proper time, Gen. Ord reminds
them with the frankness Of true soldier, that
the duty most Immediately incumbent upon
them is to provide by steady and hard work
for the support of themselves and their fami-
lies. How much sound counsel of that sort
are those poor people likely to get from the po-
litical missionaries who are labOring to instruct
them how to pronounce party shibbOleth?
Whether Gen. Ord intended to discourage
the freedmen from exercising their rights as
citizens, or to impress them with the idea that
such exercise is a duty of minor Importance
we know not; evidently the editor from whom
| We have quoted SO understands him, and COM
mends him for SO doing We undertake to
say, sf such is the intention of the command
| ing General, he transcends his duty as % true
| soldier" and deserves censure. The exercise
OF d citizens rights is one of the most sacred
| duties, especially in section of country
| where the intelligent exercise of those rights
may determine the question whether he is or
is not to remain a citizen, endowed with q citi-
zen's privileges If the freedmen can be made
to believe the raising of corn and potatoes is
of more Importance than an intelligent use Of
his own ballot in determining the character Of
the convention to be chosen, that convention
i may frame a constitution in the exclusive in
terest of the old slave oligarchists, aud ex-
| clude the colored man from the elective fran.
chse, and this is precisely what ''the political
missionaries" would save them from; just
what the paper quoted from above would have
done, and perhaps what Gen. Ord would pre-
fer to see done; at any rate, if his advice ha.
the intent evidently ascribed to it above, b.
may Justly be suspected Of a-willingness to SO,
the freedman defrauded of his rights. Why
else should he try to persuade him that the de
fence of those rights at the polls is matter o
inferior Importance? sa.usfa nh t5.,is lo
IegiThe fling at "the political missionaries" il
the above, considering its source, is simply
contemplate, and distinctly lifts the robe O
assumed Republicanism with which its author
! has, for more than year, been laboring t.
conceal the coils of the real Coppcrhead rep
tile that wriggles and Kisses beneath it.
The same paper blames the radicals for put
ting confiscation notions into the heads Of the
freedmen and organizing them as party hostile
to the Southern whites, as if the freedman had
not as much right to think and have notions Of
his own, upon confscation or any other subject
as other free citizens,-as though it were any
worse for him to be the controlling power in
new party and the hitherto rebel white be OBJ
Hged to work with, or be voted down by, him
than for other people having common and dis