Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-08-26
For the AdYertiser.


that you have SO unrcsorvedly approved tho Res
olution of thanks to President johnson, which
was adopted by tho late Democratic Convention
in Columbi.. Though not disposed to indite
"fippant scribblcs in tho newspapers" nor to
make upon Mr.. Johnston unbccoming and inde-
cent attacks" yet respectfully crave the privi-
lego of entering upon the record my humble pro-
test against tha: Resolution being considered as
expressing the sentiments of the people of South
Carolina, ,cithOut many qualifications and lnrita
tions.
That Resolution j. ful! endorsement of Mr..
Johnston's administration and o! all his official
acts affecting toe South since the late war. Can
the people of South Carolina SO stultfy them
selves as to forget and forgive oil Of his many
acts of oppression and outrage? Let us recount
some of those acts-tho bare recital Of which is
alone sufficient to stir the blood.
President Johnston, of his own voliton, an
nulcd the terms of surrender which had been
rendered and accepted by tho respective Com
manding Generals of the United States and Con-
federato armies. And, after The Confederate ar
mics had been disJand.d and had di.pcrsed, he
proceeded to impose terms and conditions of Lao
own, which the Southern people, undc:. the cir
cumstances, wcro compelled "will ye, mill ye" to
accept. This was "tho great first cause that
brought death into the South and oil our 2oe."
To add insult to outrage, Mr.. Johnston quartered
United States troops amongst us-many of them
negro-troops-shose presence served no other pur-
pose than to intensity the feelings of enmity en-
gondered by the war, to create a!ienston and did
trust amongst the negroes towards the whites, to
insti into the negroes minds false and dangerous
notions OF social and political equality of races,
and to r:nder them almost worthless rs an indus
trial class.
His setting aside the governments of the South
orn States, which were in operation at the close
of the war and were efficient for the preservation
of good order, and his establishing in their place
his pet provisional governments, were acts not
only supererogatory but grossly unconstitutional
and tyrannical. His requiring the Southern States
to abolish slavery and to rcpudate their war debts,
as prerequisite to their admission into the Union
his exacting of all men who were, before the war,
possessed of property of tho value of twenty
thousand dollars, to sue to him for special par
don, and IN amnesty oath of every man, in order
to purge themselves of treason and to enitle them
to the elective franchise his long incarceration
and cruel treatment of Jefferson Davi.-" the
noblest Roman of them all"-are NIL acts OF
vulgar tyranny" that not only do not entitle
President Johnston to our gratitude, bu. stamp
his administration in these respects as simply
Infamous.
What shall bo said of his appointment of such
british beasts" as Sicklcs and Candy and Pope
and Meade and Sheridan "to lord it over Gods
heritage" in the South? Who more disgusting
than sickles, moro contemplate than Pope, more
odouS than Meade, moaner than Sheridan, more
tyrannical than all of them? Was :he United
States army SO destitute of gentlemen, that he
could find only one Hancock-ouc decent man
among its general oficers7 And when he had ac-
oidentally blundercd upon him, why did he not re-
tain and sustain Gen. Hancock? By his appoint
ment Of men to rule over the South and his re-
tanning them in power, when he knew they wero
iisgrGcing the uniform they wore, President john
Jon made himself justly responsible for all their
mean acts of oppression and outrage.
These are some of his acts, for which be alone
s responsible, that surely must qualify and limit
sthe thanks of tho old commonwealth of South
Jarolina."
Those negative acts of his-his many vetocs of
he revolutionary acts of fragmcntary Congress
give President Johnston a just claim to our ap.
,rova and admiration; and had the resolution of
no Convention in Columbia been restricted in its
erms to those acts, would not have penned a
7ord Of dissent, BOB SHORT,