Litchfield enquirer., 1867-03-14
Our Governor.

We have yet to see the Union man who left our Courthouse on Wednesday even- ing last, dissatisfied with Governor Flaw. lez We have heard no Democrat speak of him otherwise than respectfully, no Repub- kcAn otherwise than enthusiastically. He will, we think. poll more votes this year in the very towns in which he fell behind in ls66. than any other man on our State ticket This he certainly deserves, there is % much genuine manhood in him, so little of the mere politician, the demagogue. Not only is he an eloquent speaker, a clear, candid and forcible reasoner, but he impresses every nearer with full convic- ton of his earnestness, and of his sinoeri- ty. He makes no bids for votes, but comes before the people with all the frankness of one who has nothing at stake, personally; who cares much for the cause, nothing for himself It was this frankness which came near defeating him last year, which lost him many votes of men who honored him an the while, for an open avowal of views which they then disapproved.
 The simple truth is. that in April, 1866, General Hawley only represented portion of the party of which he now represents the whole. The success of English in 1887 would no longer be the success of the Conservatism of August last; it would be the success of Copperheadism pure and simple-the success of a party which takes the New York World to task for advising the South to yield to the late Reconstruction bill-which recommends, instead, instant revolution, or. if that is not now feasible, "he dagger of aae assas- sia ar'
 A short examination of the views which induced honest, non-oHice-holding Bepub- hcans to favor the Philadelphia Conven- ton, will suffice to show how impossible it is for them consistently to support the De- mocratio party iu its present position. The theory of Reconstruction maintained by these gentlemen was, that, if the whites of the Southern States were trusted with entire control over the matter, they would show their appreciation of so generous a course by doing justice to Union men and negroes. The success of the movement depended upon its effecting junction be- tween conservative Democrats and con- servative Republicans in numbers sufi- eient to enable it to reject the assistance of the Copperheads on the one hand, and of the Radicals on the other. Any manage ment which merely withdrew enough Re- publicans to give the victory to the De- nocracy. leaving the great party which carried through the war large. dissatisfied minority, would have achieved only tenn porary success. But even such success Johnsonism never attained. The ranks of the old Union party remained frm-al- most unbroken.
 In the meantime, the men who had car- ried on the rebellion, and who had been reinstated in power by the President refusal to yield to the demands of the Northern people. and defantly continued their prosecutions of Union whites and negroes It became evident, therefore, that Congress must either abandon all con- srol over the matter, or reconstruct South sra States from the beginning. Bills for that purpose were accordingly introduced; one of which. the Louisiana bill, giving the whole State power into the hands of loyal whites and negroes, passed the House by more than two thirds vote. To pro- Iis. temporarily, however, some sndura- bls form of government for the seeded States, it was considered necessary by Un- som Ccngressnen of all shades of opinion to put thsn under military law. In arran- gins the details of this measure, there arose