The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-04-11

Reconstruction Act" viii have the effect
of alleviating much of the bitterness
| caused by the war, and he "will faith
fully execute" what he says is . subver-
sion of the Governmen and Constitution,
| which he has taken an oath to support
and defend. And such is President
Johnson-such the man who has lured
US on to our destruction.
Let Us have done with all this knavery
and folly. We prefer trusting our fate
to open enemies to trusting it to false
friends. We prefer old Ben. Wade, old
Thad. Stevens, and old Horace Greeley,
to johnson, Of Tennessee, and Johnson,
of Maryland. True, the President has
talked finely in our behalf. and so has
the '.little villain" of the Times. But
as Raymond has always voted against
US, SO johnson has, at least, not acted
for US. Let him go his ways. The
South can trust him no longer. We must
find other guarantors for our safety, and
that safety We must find with the Repub
lican party, or not at all. President
johnson has no strength, moral, political
or physical. He represents nothing, and
he represents nobody. Let him 60. like
| s'the Confederate rote,"
Representing nothing Gods earth now,
Aud naught in the waters below it.
But we have to complain of the Dem
ocratic party North as much as we com
plain of President johnson. Next to
President johnson, we owe all our pres
ent troubles to the s'unterrified
irou-ribbed Democracy" In the first
place, the Northern Democrats always
agreed with US in our ideas concerning
secession, and often encouraged us to
exercise our right. Many of them de-
clared that the South could be coerced
only over their dead bodies. And it was
so, but not in the sense in which they in
tended US to understand their declaration.
The South was coerced over some of
their dead bodies, but they had enough
living bodies left to enforce the coercion
ic journals have continually fed US on
the false hope that the Democracy, in
conjuction with President j IN OH,
would give Us our rights, if need be,
with the bayonet. Witness the more
ultra Democratic journals, the Day Book.
Metropolitan Record, Freeman's Jour
nal and Daily News, and the more mod
crate journal, the New York World.
.: loss -: L.,
encourage US to get into trouble. and then
whip us for doing what they told rs to
do.
Senator Sherman declared that if the
Southern people complained that the Mil
itary Act was harsh. they had their North
ern Democratic friends to thank for it,
since they had voted down an amend
ment, which was quite mitigation Of the
severity of the original bill.
This is so, and we have a good many
other things to thank our Northern Dem
ocratic friends for. We have to thank
them that they encouraged US to secede,
and then whipped us for doing SO. We
have to thank them that since the cessa-
ton of the war they have again fed us
upon false hopes. We have to thank
them for keeping up the evaporation of
the Northern people against US.
Some Republican remarked in Con-
gress that the more Democrats resisted
Republican policy, the more decided and
emphatic that policy would become
Brooks, of New York, a recent convert
to Democracy, answered that this might
be true, but the Democrats would con
tinue to resist. Bully for Mr.. Brooks.
living in q ''loyal' State, as he does, it
costs him nothing to resist but his in
iquities are to be visited upon the South
ern people. He can pursue his partisan
policy with impunity, but the South is to
be made the victim. Party tacticts make
it necessary for the Democrats in Con.
gress to defeat. if possible, such a thing
as Blaine's amendment, and to pose
Republican policy generally. In the
meantime the most vital interest Of the
Southern people is the plaything of the
politicians. the shuttlecock that is tossed
back and forth between the battledores
of the two opposing factions, the foot
ball that is kicked about by the two hos
tile parties, the unhappy grist that is
ground beneath the upper and neither
millstones.
OF this we are tired in the superlative
degree. President johnson has tried to
reconstruct us, has most signally fail
ed, acknowledged bis defeat. and surren-
dered at discretion. The little villain
of the New York Times, and men of his
ilk, calihre and kidney, with their milk
and cider policy, have also tried and
failed The Northern Democracy have |
lent helping hand wherever failure has !
been certain to be the result; and now |