Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1867-04-03
THE LAST VETO.

President JohuSol has sent to Con
gress veto Of the Supplementary Recon
structiou act that reads very strangely tc
any one familiar with his administration
as military Governor Of Tennessee. 1t is
entertaining to observe how apprehensive
he is lest the conventions to be elected
under this proposed reorganization Of the
rebel States should not represent "the
people" thereof. Looking into the mes
sage closely, says the North american,
We find that his idea of "the people" Of
the south does not include the four mill
ions of the African race, but that he has
the most especial and remarkable crre for
all the whites of these States who were
rebels. He does not perceive how they
are to avoid perjury, and he fears, poor
soul. that they will Re compelled by the
force of circumstances to do rather too
much hard swearing. If Congress would
set up mark so that they could swear at
it, perhaps they could arrange matters
satisfactorily, to themselves at least.
Taking into consideration the amount
of time and care bestowed 10 this bill up
on the work of registration, and the pre-
cautions by which full and honest vote
is insured, it is tolerably cool in President
johnson to treat the bill as an outrage
upon popular rights, when the sort of an
election he beld aud contrived in Tennes-
see in 1864 was such that Congress re-
fused to count the electoral vote of the
State, notwithstanding that he was our
candidate for Vice President. The dis
franchisement established, and indeed
originated by himself, in Tennessee, far
exceeded what is provided for in this act,
and if this policy of disfranchisement be
now as odious as he would have US believe,
be must thank himself for it.
The point in reference to Congress ex-
acting condition of suffrage at the south
which is not established at the north would
be good one but for the important con-
siderations that these northern States have
not been in rebellion against the national
government that the blacks in the north
are so few that the denia! of suffrage to
them does not prevent a majority of the
people from governing, as it does in the
south /; and finally, that the national gov
,ernment has neither the power nor the
cause of complaint against the north that
it has against The south.
AS to the apprehensions johnson strives
to excite, relative to the interference of
military authority to prevent the registra-
tion, it is sufficient answer to that to say
that the whole military authority is under
his own immediate control and direction,
by the express words of the national Con-
stituticn..; that Congress possesses no pow
er to interfere with him in that depart
men,, and that he has himself appointed
the brigadier generals entrusted with
authority in the several military districts.
What, then, could possess the man to mag
nifty the dangers Of military usurpation
or tyranny, when he knew that the remedy
was in his own hands? What, indeed,
but the soured, discontented, malignant
and hateful disposition of man who
knows that his own dark designs have all
been thwarted by the Legislative body
whose acts he seeks 20 SANDER and misrep-
resent
No President of the United States ever !
before was subjected to the MOI tifcation
of having bis veto defed in the Senate
by vote of forty to seven. This major
ity against him seems TO augment with
each successive veto, and it is SO great
now On the occasion of his twelfth act of
folly, that he might as we'll waste no more
good writing paper in placing on record
statements that must hand his name down
with infamy to all posterity.
1t is reported that the latest move
nent in the New Jersey Legislature, with