Year: 1866

The Message and Documents.


From the North american and U. s. Gazette Rddi-
cal Republican.


At present we shall consider these documents
together, as forming parts of the general pre-
Eenlaton of the state of affairs and of the view =
and policy of the government. The first thing
that occurs to the reader of these documents is tina
their whole tone, especially that of the President
met sage, is very decidedly moderated from tn
b gh and insolent bearing which so incensed both
Congress and the nation. There is really nothing
TO complain of in the language or temper OF any
Of these documents. 1t is apparent even to tn
most superficial observer that they are all ex
tremely guarded, and that an effort has been mad
to aesume an air of courtesy and deterence to th
peoples esentatives, for which the election
have Pre- baby afforded the hint. We may diife
from the sentiplents advanced, but one can
deny that the opinions held by the writers of tn
documents are stated in very moderate terms
Looking at the sentiments themselves, we find
them to be identical with those advanced in the
documents of last year, and the policy advocated
by the President does not differ a hairs breadth
from that he has rendered so offensive that all
the professions in favor of impartial suffrage must
have been intended to deceive those who under
took to deal with him. Not step Is taken in the
direction of any conciiiation with Congress- nor
is any plan OF agreement even hnted at. Just as
the plan Of admitting the rebel States uncondition-
ally was submitted last year, 1t is repeated in the


The statement made by this document is so
smooth, plausible and insinuatng, that many per-
sons will probably oyerookthe 1nisrepresentations
it contains The President, for example, says that
the enforcement of the laws is longer obstructed
in any State by combinations too powerful to be





ceedngs, which certainly is not the fact. All over
the south bands of regulators oppress the Union
men and the freedmen, burn their houses, fog and
even Kill them, and no Judicial proceedings can
reach the outlaws. No attempt has been made to
enforce the Civil Rights act, and the combinations
at the south have rendered IL dead letter. 1t is
curious that the President wholly ignores that
statute in his message. The Freedmen's Bureau
receives the cold shoulder in about the style.
The message sa that "the animositIes engendered
by the war are lpidy yielding the beneficent in
huences OF our Tree institutions and to the kindly
effects OF unrest icted social and commercial inter-
course" We Wish 1t were so but 1t is not. The
frghful outral es that darkened the early history
of Kansas have ,een transcribed in magnitude and
iniquity all ovt the south. The reign of terror
everywhere south fullu established, and there is
really no protection there for northern men or
loyalists or freedmen.


Tie President renearses his reconstruction ef-
forts, for the purpose OF again meddlng with a
matter of which Congress alone has constitutional
]urisdiction--the admission of members from the
rebel States. The triumphant manner in which
the people have sustained Congress is coolly dis
regarded by this message 1t is not necessary to
traverse this portion of the document and we
notice it now only to cali attention to the fact that
all the attempts at q new basis of arrangement
have failed, and that the President yields nothing
whatever TO public opinion as declared In the
elections. The President does not even attempt
to present reasonable excuse for interfering with
the rolls of members of Congress. and 1t is not
what he says on the subject. II is plain that it
was written for the public and not for Congress,
and hence the moderate language used. The Sec
retary of the Treasury goes out OF his way in his
give il as one of the measures indispensable to the
proper regulations of our finances. He makes the
attempt to induce people to believe that the policy
of Congress reconstruction impairs the value of
sintended only to create opinion among the people
hostile to Congress