The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-04-28

develop into that despieabie character,
the betraycr Of his party? On the con
trary, those who differ most widely with
the President, as to the party expedency
of his course relative to Southern poll
ties, never entertain in their minds a
shadow of suspicion of the integrity of
his Republieanism, or the sincerity of
his desire to pacifcate and unitize the
Nation.
The President may fail, but if success
shall not reward him in the end. his
failure will be one of Judgment and not
of patriotic purpose. AS one reads
Mr. Wade's structures upon the Presi-
dent, it does not require a serious exer-
else of memory to recall his denunca-
tons of that great and good man,
Abraham Lincoln, for reasons not wholly
dissimilar 1t is a familiar scrap Of
recent political history, and we recall
it as related succinctly by leading
New York daily:
1.-THE Reconstruction bill of the first
session of the Thirty eight Congress was a
yet measure of b. F. W ade, then in the
Senate, and of Henry Winter Davis, of
Maryland. then in the House. Briefly, the
bill provided that the President should APP
point Provisional Governor for each of
tba ioI hat
officer should be charged with the civil add
ministration of the State until a State Gov
eminent should be organized; that as soon
as the rebellion should be suppressed and
the inhabitants had returned to their al
legiance. the Provisional Governor should
procure an enrolment of the white male
citizens, and when majority OF these
were found qualified to exercise the sui
frage. elections for delegates for a constitu
tional convention should be ordered. This
bill. after much debate passed both houses
of Congress, the final passage being Sc
cured, after an all night sitting. on the last
day Of the session. July 18th, 1864. 1t was
well known that the President was opposed
to any plan of reconstruction which should
tie him up to a single mode OF opel atoms
in all of the unreconstructed States When
he received the Wade Davis bill, during
it aside. Congress adjourned without any
message on the subject. The bill was dead
Four days afierward the President, issued
his famous proclamation, in which he gave
his reasons for refusing to sign the bill.
He said he was unprepared to abandon
the free State Governments already formed
in Louisiana and Arkansas, and that he
was also unwilling to approve bill which
intiexibly committed the Executive to any
single plan of reconstruction. He, accord
ingly, recommended the scheme Of restora-
ton contained in the bill to such States as
might favor it, and announced his inten-
ton of appointing Military Governors to
facilitate the measures proposed TO be car
ried out under its provisions In private
conversation, Lincoln good humoredly said,
with the queer pretense of unfamiiarty
with history and fiction which he some
times affected: The Wade Davis bill
reminds me of an old fable of a man
Proclustes, wasn't he ?-who made bed
of iron on which his victims must lie. If
they were too short, he pulled them out to
fit; if they were too long, he chopped them
off accordingly. That's the way this bill
was to be applied to rebellious States
The authors of the bill were furious. A
manifesto signed by 3. F. Wade and Henry
Winter Davis followed the Presidents pro-
I clamation. 1t was as vehement and bitter
as Mr.. Wade's recent letter on the policy
Of President Hayes. 1t was published
just as the Presidential campaign of 1864
was opening. Lincoln had been renomi
mated at Baltimore. There had been no
time to judge of the effect of his proclama-
ton upon the people, no time to judge Of
the effect of his policy in the South"
With this recollection, we are not
satisfied to accept Mr. Wade as safe
exponent of general Republican senti-
ment upon so important a political prob
lem, as that which now excites the
anxiety of all thinking men.