Year: 1868

part is an aristocratic Government, by whatever
name it may be called" / find that the very
men who profess 80 much concern for the pre-
servation of the Constitution are now most
earnestly laboring to make proselytes for
white mans government, which can only be
had by legislatlng for class, thereby adopting
a principle that Is at war with the very letter
and spirit of the Constitution which they pro-
fess so much to revere. Such course Is ncon-
sistent as the profession aud the practice OF
President johnson. He declared at one time
that treason against the Government is the
highest crime that can be committed" }" and that
those engaged in 1t ''should suffer all its penal
ties.' Treason" he said, "must be male
odous, and traitors must be punished and i'm
povershed.n


He, went SO far as to say, "They must not
only be punished, but their social power must
be destroyed; II not, they maintain an ascend
ancy, and may again become numerous enough
for treason to become respectable" He said,
After making treason odious, every Union
man should be remunerated out of the pockets
of those who have inflicted the great suffering
on our country He then said, Il hold it
solemn obligation, in every one OF these States
where the Rebel armies have been beaten back
or expelled, care not how small the number Of
Union men may be, il enough to man the ship
of State, hold it to be a high duty to protect
aud secure to them republican form of gov
ernment until they gam strength. They must
not be smothered by inches"


In reference to Convention to restore the
States, he asked:-Who shall restore them?
Shall the rlen who gave all their influence and
means to destroy the Government? Are they to
participate in the great work of recognizing
the Government, who brought this misery on
the States? II this be so, then it is said in
truth that all the precious blood of our brave
soldiers and officers will have been lost, and all
our battle-felds will have been made memo
raole in vain" He then asked, "Why all this
carnage" and said 1T was that treason might
be put down and traitors punished" He said
"traitors should take back seat in the work of
restoration" He said the traitor has ceased
to be citizen and in forming rebellion has be-
q r. md haa ln.t hya rifrInt IN
vote with loyal men,"


He said that the great plantations of the tra
tors must be seized aud divided into small
farms, and sold to honest, industrious meu;"
also, "the day for protecting the land and
negroes of these authors OF rebelionls past.n


To cap the climax of Inconsistency with all
that ne has since done and tried to accomplish,
he said that he had been deeply panied by some
things that had come under his observation.
He said:-"We get men in command who, under
the influence OF iattery, fawning. and caressing,
graut protection to rich traitors while the poor
Union man stands out in the cold.n He went
on and said that Orators can get lucrative EN-.
ployment while loyal men are pushed aside"


He said in relation to reconstructing the
much of hurry. 1t is better to let them recon-
struct themselves, than to force them into it,"
But as soon as he became President we find him
hurryiDg reconstruction on plan or policy of
his own. and resisting, with all tse power he
possessed, the mild measures prepared by Con.
gress, and intended 10 enable the Rebel States



difficulty or delay. 1t is difficult for one to
imagine how any honest, intelligent man can
join with President johnson, and charge the
majority OF Congress with icing a class of
radicals and traitors, changing on the skirts
of Government which they are trying to
destroy.n


1t has been equally difficult for me to form
an apology for such unreasonable charges as l
find In your speeches-and in the speeches of
others claiming TO be Democrats-against au
administration that has had TO contend with
nF " nd m pnrnc INT tafi
that the ingenuity OF those who we're in Rebel
lion against the Government and OF all those
who were in sympathy with them, could invent
/ regret to find in eNeral OF your speeches that
you make no allowance for the extraordinary
and trying circumstances through which the
Government was compelled to pass-circum
stances that would have made 1t wise and pro-
per to have raised money by forced loans if no
other means could have been found to save the
nations life.


You have said truly in your late speech that
reputation as national crime" You then try
to throw on that party the odum of a deliberate
design to repudiate the national debt. The re-
pudiation Of the national debt is Que of the last
acts that the Republican party will ever tolerate
or allow.


! have been panied to find in your several
speeches a course of reasoning that is tending
TO revive the TebelliOus spirit throughout our
Southern States course of reasoning that has
already won for you the enthusiastic support of
those who were most prominentin the ReOe lion,
and of all who are in sympathy with them
throughout our country.


am sorry to see in your speeches an effort to
prejudice the laboring population with the
statement that the Government is introducing
system of unjust and unequal taxation.


1t is certain that our Government could never
stand in the presence of such laws AZ prevailed
throughout the Southern States before the
Rebellion; laws that made it crime to "un.
bind the heavy burden, and let the captive 60
free;" laws that made 1t a crime to teach poor
helpless slave to read and write, fearing that a
knowledge of the Declaration OF Independence,
that declares the inalienable right of every
man to his life, his liberty, and the pursuit OF
happiness, would make him un willing longer to
remain slave. To talk of such a system and
such laws as have prevailed at the South being
democratic, is to talk of living body without
an animating spirit.


The Cincinnsti Catholic Telegraph, the official
organ of the Catholic Church in the West, has
SAID with great propriety, that "the interest of
| particular, are involved in the question Of
| slavery more than any other, and 1t Is the duty
of men to prepare their minds conscientiously
| that they may as far as po! sible, maintain what
| is best Tor the people. Every one acknowledges
that slavery Is an evil. No man who is free would
ever consent to be slave. 1t is abhorrent to his
| nature. No man can allege any right to reduce
| human being to that miserable con 1itlon. 1T
| is detestable to mind and heart. And moreover
| he who reduces free man to slavery Is eXcom-
municated by the Catholic Church. Slavery
! was the cause of our national troubles. 1t was
| for slavery that the war was commenced, and
| the blood of the brave men who have fallen on
| both sides has been shed by this insatiate mon
ster. The hope of its restoration is not aban-
doned. There are mulhtudes of men who
| would love to see 1t in the ascendant as it was
| before.n Never were truer words said than
that Slavery was the cause OF our national
| troubles.n


Notwithstanding all the misery that slavery
| and the war have brought on our country, let us