Year: 1867

The Presidents Veto Message.


We publish in another column, th,


Message Of the President, communi


eating his objections to the Supple


mental Military Bill. He suggests
one point of more than ordinary i'm


portance in considering the practica


bearing of the measure. 1t is that the
oath required to be taken may be SC
construed as to exclude all persons
from the polls, white or black who
participated in the war on the South


ern side, or gave aid to the Confed


crate cause, This is not the construc


tion which was placed on the law by
Senator's Sherman, Wilson and others
who originated and passed it. On the
contrary, they expressly denied it
When person,.in registering himself
is required to make oath that he "has
not been disfranchised for participat-
ing in rebellion or civil war against
the United States," reference is clearly
had to the disqualifying clauses of the
Military Bill and the proposed amend
ment to the Constitution that no per-
son shall vote or hold office who hav-
ing taken oath to support the Consti-
tuition of the United States, as mem
ber of either branch of Congress, or
Presidential elector, or member of any
State Legislature, or as an executive
or judicial officer of any State, DC,
and afterwards gave aid and comfort
to the Southern cause.


These are the excluded classes, ac-
cording to the Interpretation of the
authors of the measure, and the ap-
plicant for the privilege of suffrage is
required to affirm whether or not he is
included among them. No one in ad-
vocating the measure suggested that
it was the design of Congress to dis
franchise all who participated in the
Southern side of the war, and if such |
had been its object, persons would
have been required to swear, not that
they have been disfranchised, &C., but
that they chad not participated in the
rebellion" &c.


The President lays down as a max
i'm that


''Ifever the American citizen should be
left to the free exercise ofhis own Judgment,
ing the fundamental law under which he is
to live; that work is his work, and it can
not properly be taken out of his hands. All
this legislation proceeds upon the contrary
assumption that the people of each of these
States shall have no constitution except
such as may be arbitrarily dictated by Con-
gress and formed under the restraint of mil
itary rule"
This is the true doctrine of consti- /.
tutional liberty and Republican gov :
ernment; but unfortunately it has not '
been applied to these Southern States ]
by any Department. of the Government l
since the fall of the Confederacy. 1t !.
is well known that our present State 4
Constitution was "arbitrarily Dictated c
by the President, at the point of the o
bayonet; and that the people Of the c
State established it as their organic 4
law because they had been overcome n
in contest of arms, and that the pen Il
atty of refusing to conform to these S
would be the continua- W
ton of the reign of Martial Law, un- p
der which they found themselves placed ~
at the close of the war. They submit A
ted to such "dictation" because resist 81
ance either in the form of "masterly q
or overt act, would have y y
been madness. They will do so again, !,
without indulging complaint against al
the President, because he has not been hi
able to carry out his pledges, but in pl
the reasonable expectation that mas 81
much as the real power Of the Govern 70 m
nent resides in Congress, this latter tn
,ody will act in good faith when its dc
demands are complied with and re- tn
tore them to a position of equality in -
he Union. a.