Year: 1866

and defined. True, there would have been bit
little difficulty in adjusting the whole matter had
a certain department of the Government readily
co-operated with the legislative branch But
such was not the case. Before the assembling OF
Congress the President had proceeded to recon-
struct the rebel States. He was eminently sue
cessful. In few months he had, il most OF
them without any authority of law whatever
State governments in full operation. He mad
appointed traitors Provisional Governors,
in some instances; and the rebels themselves
had elected traitors governors and members OF
Congress- The whole affair was rebel through
out. The great body of the Unionsts in the
South were not consulted at all. They were al
lowed no voice in electing the civil officers, or
in making the laws under which they where to
live Worse than that, disabilities of the most
harrassing and veXatious nature were imposed
upon them The whole enginery of legislation
was ingeniously contrived to oppress and tor
ment them. At this juncture the Provisional
Governors were recalled, and they were turned
over, with no protection but that afforded by the
Freedmens Bureau, to their old tormentors.-
! The rebel generals and members of the defunct
confederate congress, who had been elected by
these bogus States, indorsed by the President,
applied for admission to the Congress OF the
United States.


Under these circumstances delegation of
coored men waited upon the President to repre-
sent to him, that, contrary to an opinion some
!
which white men were bound to respect. Were
they not men,? Were they not natives of the
country? Were they not citizens? -? When the
whites in the Southern States rose in rebellion
against the Government, and wagcd war upon it,
and became outlaws and traitors, had they not
remained faithful and loyal Had not more
| than one hundred thousand of them in the dark.
! est hour of the struggle, enlisted in the Federal


armies? Had they not fought bravely and well


for "liberty and union on many bloody


field? Were not they the first to enter in trr


umph the rebel capital? Were not they ma


jority in at least two of the rebel States? As


suredy all this true. Why, then, in the


process of reconstructng the nsurgent States,


where they reckoned of no account? Why was


the ballot placed exclusively in the hands of
rebels and traitors and denied to them, the only


reliable and trustworthy friends of the Union?


Certainly this was no way to reward friends, Or
punish enemieS-to give the ballot to rebel SOL
ders, and refuse it to Union soldiers. They
therefore called upon him to protect them in
those rights secured to them by the law of the
nation, and further, to aid them in obtaining the
ballot, that they might, to some extent, protect
themselves.


All this could not we'll be denied. 1t was not
denied. " But what advantage would the suf-
frage be to them? They must trust to their
| exertons, and to the sense of justice of pardon
cd and reconstructed rebels, the same men
who had whipped and lashed them, bought and





erations who refused to allow them to
learn to read the pages in which recorded
the truths of the everlasting gospel who now
burn their humble schoo-houses, and maltreat
and murder their teachers; who refuse them
equality before the law. and justice in the
courts who combine to withhold from them
just compensation for their labor and kdnap,
and sell them in the slave markets of Cuba.


To be sure. the Executive ratocination on this
branch of the subject was exceedingly foggy, as
we'll as rambling and disjointed was
fearfuly assaulted and battered common sense,
grieyously outraged:-had once seriously tho't
of becoming q second Moses; had relin-
quished the intention. Had once said rebellion
was a crime was now pardoning rebels Had
declared that the governments in the seeded
States should be entrusted exclusively to Union
men now obsolete idea the insurgents
in full possession, and, moreover, were zeal
Gus supporters of his policy. The mass of the
whites in the South ignorant; they hated
the blacks they were in possession, which was
nine points of the law (he did not say who put
them in possession;) therefore they ought to
rule, and the blacks to be ruled. What would it
avail to agitate the matter now where commence?
How beautiful and symmetrical is the presiden-
tial principle Just look at it a moment. The
whites in the SOUTH hate the blacks, therefore
they should possess the suffrage, and the blacks
be excluded. The whites in the South are ig
norant and were rebels the blacks are loyal,
and fought for the Union. Let the whites have
the government.


What though the land has been made one vast
charnel house in the effort to maintain the IN
ion, and establish liberty What though the
blood of the slain is perpetual and enduring
testimony against the wickedness of slavery and
the crime of rebellion What though three
thousand millions of treasure have been lost in
crushing treason and preserving national unity
We must forget the noble dead, and the costiy
sacrifice and acknowledge ourselves in the wrong,
| by immediately making rebellion the peer OF 10Y
alty.-Northampton Gazette.