Year: 1867




Let Congress do its work well. We want
no botching, no supplementary bills, no ex-
plantations requiring explanation. The one
point to be kept well in mind in this, that any
contest is between the President and Congress,
and not between Congress and the South. ALI
this trouble was made, not by the South, but
by the President. We only desire to bring
the South back to the Union upon the basis OF
universal amnesty and impartial suffrage.
That must be well and quickly done.


The war left us reconstruction. The aboli-
tion of slavery made il necessary that Il should
be radical. We had to return to the old plan
when the majority of the members of Congress
were the slave-drivers Of the South, and the
slavery-spaniels of the North, with the inevi-
table payment of the Rebel debt, slave laws,
and the negroes as freedmen, and not freemen,
or else make a new South. This was the
practical problem. Andrew Johnson could
have solved it in an hour, if, instead of howl
ing about hanging people for treason he had
made one brief proclamation covering this. He
put stumbling blocks in the way, fred the heart
of the North, injured the South, kept the
country in turmoil, and had his great Office
clipped and shorn of two-thirds of its power
Under the present bill the Southern States
might have finished registration, held their
conventions, adopted suitable constitutions,
and taken seats in the next Congress. A
great amount of money would have been
saved. Sheridan's work, for instance, was
done, and in other departments it was nearly
finished. Now it must be done over again,
with additional expenditures.


Let this be we'll matured. Two weeks more
are trivial compared with the great interests at
stake and the perils of inefficient reconstruc-
ton. The South must be paci6ed, and our
Mexican affairs must be inquired into. Con-
gress cannot adjourn without a rigid inquiry
into our diplomatic relations with Mexico. 1t
is said that during the war we were playing
falsely, that we showed no real neutrality, that
we made our Republic base of operations for
France, and denied the Liberals any power;
that while the people were warmly and pas
sionately in favor of the Mexican Republic,
our Government was at heart in sympathy
with the French. 1t is said that Mr.. Campbell
was not ordered to Mexico until after the sur
render at Queretaro, that his appointment was
not in good faith, and that he was directed to
remain in New Orleans because we did not
wish to offend the Emperor of the French by
sending a Minister to Juarez. 1t certainly
seems suspicious that during the agony of the
strife, after the return of Mr.. Corwin, no Min
lister was accredited to Juarez. 1t is even
more than suspicious when we reflect that our
diplomacy in many cases seems to have been
dictated by England and France-to have been
frequently in direct antagonism to the wishes
of Congress and the country. So far as
Mexico is concerned, our diplomacy has been
either imbecility or knavery. Our national
honor has been wounded. Congress should
hold the guilty to strict reckoning, and let
the truth be known.


1t might be well to do something with the
finances, but we deprecate anything hasty on
that subject. The harvests are now our best
fnanciers. Sunshine and good weather, and
occasional ripening, grateful showers, will do
more in the next two months than two years
of debate. So unless some necessity arises,
we think Congress had better do its work well
and quickly, and adjourn. Let us have as little
talk as possible, only earnest counsel, pru-
dence, magnanimity and promptness. Let
confscation, and impeachment, and President
making rest. So far as the South is concerned
we do not want surgery, or probing the knife
or blood-letting, only generous, grateful medi-
cines, that will make it comely and strong
comely with freedom and justice, and strong in
contented and independent labor, bounteous
harvests, the cattle feeding upon a thousand
hills, school houses and spelling books, mills
upon her water-courses, and science tearing
out of her bosom rich and endless treasures