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P10vt0.10,04104m,,
;:livtDpiv ! E3VAttsgtg.BEß 4; 1887,
A Taltlatito /Vey. ,
We publish in full in this issue of the,
WEEKLY INTELLIGthiCEA the Annual;
Message'of President' . the re-,
ports of the,. giderent members • of the;
Judiciary COmniittee on Impeachment,;
the testimon of Gen. Grant before that,
Committee, and a vast amount of other
valuable political matter. Besides this
will be found editorials on all the'above
topics and on the current political _ events
of the day, a completesummary ofall im
portant news, reports of Court Proceed
ings and of all local occurrences, choice
literary selections, poetry, the fullest
marketreports, new advertisements and
everything That goes to make up a first
class family and political newspaper.—
We ask the readers of the WEEKLY IN.
TELLIGENCER to compare it to any other
weekly paper published in Pennsylva
nia. They may rest assured it will be
found second to none.
To give the large amount of reading
matter we this week present to our
patrons, we 'have been compelled to is
sue a supplement, but all our arrange
ments are now made to enlarged the
WEEKLY INTELLICIENCER to a size
that will make it about equal to our
present issue with the supplement.
That will be done after January Ist.
The INTELLIGENCER will then contain
more valuable reading matter than any
weekly paper published In the State. Let
our friends see to it that no effort is
spared to Increase our circulation.
Every reader can do something for us.
Take this paper as a sample of what
the enlarged WEEKLY will be, and get
your neighbor to subscribe at once.
The President's Message
We herewith lay before our readers
the Annual Message of the President
to the Senate and House of Itepresenta•
tives in Congress assembled. It is a
document which will be carefully read
by every intelligent citizen of the
United States; and it cannot fall to
command almost universal commen
dation Like all the State papers of
Andrew Johnson, it is written In a
clear, lucid style, admirably adapted to
the forcible expression of the views of
the President and his Cabinet on the
highly important topics which demand
the earnest consideration of Congress.
It will nut be found to be a mere dry
disquisition on unimportant affairs; but
on the contrary, a live document, deal.
log fearlessly, and in a manner that will
commend itself to the favorable consider
thin of the masses with all the vital
questions which are now agitating the
public mind. We deem it unnecessary
to attempt any review of it in detail.—
Suffice it to say, the President takes no
step backward ; but, encouraged by the
results of the recent elections, he insists
that the voioe of the people shall be
heeded by Congress.
On the great question of the restora
tion of the Southern States to the Union
the message is eminently sound and
conservative. The many evils which
have sprung from the disorganizing and
disunion policy of Congress are pointed
out with great force and clearness. The
attempt to establish a negro empire on
the ruins of the States is denounced as
it deserves to be. Negro Suffrage, as
inaugurated in the South, is shown to
be a gigantic and unmitigated evil, cal
culated to impoverish that once rich
section of our country, to lay heavier
burthens of taxation on the working
white men of the North, and to be the
fruitful source of many and constantly
increasing political disasters.
The President does not fear impeach
ment. And he tells Congress, iu plain
terms, that he will defend the Execu
tive branch of the Government from
any unconstitutional attack which may
be made upon it. In doing this lie will
be fully sustained by a vast majority of
the white men of the United States,
should thelladicals be foolhardy enough
to force the matter to such an issue.
But, us every one will read the Ines
sage for himself, we forbear further com
ment. It is such a document as was
needed at the present crisis, and fully
meets the demands of the occasion.
WE were again under obligations to
Robert Johnson, Eq., son and Private
Secretary of President Johnson, for an
advanced copy of the Annual Message.
We are thus enabled to lay it before the
readers of the Daily intelligencecr at the
same hour it was being read in Con
gress.
THE Philadelphia blquircr, and per
haps sonic. other papers, published the
President's Message yesterday morning,
in advance of its delivery. Such au act is
a breach of good faith for which there
can be no possible excuse, and honor
able publishers would not be guilty of
so doing.
GENERAL HANCOCK has issued an
order assuming command of the Fifth
Military District. It is a sensible docu
ment. He says he regards the main
tenance of the civil authorities iu the
faithful execution of the laws, as the
most efficient under existing circum
stances. In war it is indispensable to
repel force by force, and overthrow and
destroy opposition to lawful authority,
but when insurrectionary force has been
overthrown, and peace established, and
the civil authorities are ready and will
ing to perform their duties, the military
power should cease to lead, and the civil
administration resume its natural and
rightful dominion.
South Carolina Election
The latest returns from South Caro-.
lina show that the negro convention
project has been defeated in that State.
There was not a majority of the regis
tered votes cast at the election, and, in
consequence, no convention will be held.
It is a great pity the result was not
similar throughout the entire South.
The doings of the mongrel assemblages
called State Conventions, are doing
much to annihilate radicalism in the
North, but the white people of the
South are paying very dearly for that
great blessing.
The Vote of Illinois
The Cincinnati Enquirer says the vote
of Illinois shows that the huge Repub
lican majority of the past has been
wiped out. Tiae Democratic papers of
that State claim confidently that they
would have carried the State if there
had been any general election. From
all appearances Illinois may be regard
ed as sale for the Democratic candidate
for President next fall.
Gen. Ewing on Grant
Gen. Thomas Ewing, son of the old
Whig Statesman of that name has writ
ten a strong letter to a friend who asked
his opinion on the formation of a Grunt
.Club, in which he says he must know
what Gen. Grant's political views are
before he can support him for Presi
dent. An extract from his letter will
show how a large majority of the sol
diers are thinking and feelingjust now.
He says:
I want first to know whether lie approves
of the reconstruction measures, for, if he
does, I cannot support him. I regard them
as mischievous; begot of revenge, misdi
rected philanthrophy and lust of power. I
would as soon expect a house to stand on
the crater of a living volcano, as a State,
where whites and blacks being nearly
equal in numbers, the whites are proscribed,
:and the blacks made rulers. Such a gov
ernment cannot long have the heartfelt
pympatliy of any large body of white men
imywhere.
~.,..~
'~ Y e ~lmpeac~iment~ epoete.
We give up much of our space to-day
to the reports of the Judiciary-Commit
tee of Coigress•on the impeachment of
President, lohnioii.
,2.11 y some means,.
Mr. Churchill; : wholfid along de;:
dared that there was nothing in the
testimony takeiii to justify impeach
ment, we:seat ittk last • hp*, loug after
all the testimony was and.without a'
particle of evidence to change his mind,
induced to sign his name to what ap
pears as the majority report. The peo
ple will read that singular document
with. much interest. They will be
struck with amazement, and their
minds will be filled with indignation
as they peruse it. • They will see plainly
evidenced on the part of the majority of
the most importlint committee of Con
gress a willingness to violate every legal
maxim, and to outrage every principle
of justice for the purpose of gaining a
temporary partisan advantage. Nor is
that all. They will see that these reck
less men are prepared to strike down
the strongest Constitutional barriers,
and to undertake to subject the execu
tive to tile irresponsible will of
a majority in a Congress, which has
just been condemned by the voice of the
people of the North in elections very
recently held. The people will look in
vain throughout that report, for the set
ting furth of any crime committed by
the President. They will search it
through without finding even a misde
meanor charged against him of suffi
cient importance to call for popular
condemnation, much less demanding
his impeachment. The people will be
the judges In the great issue now joined,
and they will decide between the party
accused and his partisan accusers.
We ask the people to look at the in
dictment against the President prepared
by a minority of the Judiciary Com
mittee, and only assented to by Mr.
Churchill for reasons which are more
than suspected. It starts out by ar
raigning Andrew Johnson for what
is known as the North Carolina
Proclamation, a document embodyhig
a plan for the restoration of the States
recently in rebellion to their proper po
sition in the Union. On that proclama
tion all subsequent ones relating to
other States were modeled, and all
which was done iu the premises by
the President was done in pursuance
thereof, nothing .being done in refer
ence thereto by him not necessary to
the accomplishment of the proposed
most praiseworthy design. Who
was the real author of this North Caro
lina Proclamation': General Grant has
answered that question iu very decided
and most unequivocal language. Ou
his solemn oath, before this very com
mittee, when being examined in refer-
euce to this question of impeaching the
President he said, speaking iu regard
to the necessity of a speedy restoration
of the S(Luthern States to the 'Union,
and of the plan adopted by President
Johnson :
Mr. Lincoln, prior to his assassination,
hull inaugurated a policy intended to restore
these governments. I was present 011 M,
before his murder, when a plan was read.
The plan adopted by Mr. Johnson was sub
stantially the plan which had been inau
gurated by Mr. Lincoln as the basis Mr his
[inure action. 1 do not know that it was
verbatim the same. I think the very paper
which I heard i'cad twice while Mr. Lin
coln was President was the one which was
carried right through.
What paper Was that.? A. The North
Carolina proclmation. I took them to be
thp very saine paper ; they were substan
tially the same, if not the very same.
Any man who reads the different
clauses with which the majority report
concludes, will find that all of them
which are of importance relate to the
attempt of Mr. Johnson to carry into
effect the plan for a restoration of the
Southern States drawn up and ap
proved by Mr. Lincoln, prior to his
assassination. All else therein contain
ed is matter of very little importance.
And yet, we see from the clear and un
equivocal testimony of General Grant,
that Mr. Johnson originated no policy
of his own ; that he was in fact only
endeavoring to carry out iu good faith
the policy inaugurated and laid down
in a written document by Mr. Lincoln,
the very man these accusers of the
President profess to idolize.
The able report of the minority of the
Committee confirms all we have stated.
It was written by the Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, one of the ablest
Republicans iu Congress, and is signed
by another Republican member of the
Committee, also a man of superior
character. So fur as the minority re
port goes in its condemnation of the
impeachment resolution, and iu its
clear and strong exposition of the il
logical and illegal assumptions of the
majority, that report is endorsed
by the two Democratic members
of the Judiciary Committee. Be
cause they could not coincide with that
part of this minority which censures
the President, the Democratic members
saw fit to prepare a third report. That
we will lay before our readers in full.
The minority report furnished by . Re
publicans is sufficient to condemn the
action of the majority. It knocks every
prop from under the structure they
have reared, and leaves it to stand as
the basest and most disreputable attempt
to outrage law ever undertaken in any
government on the face of the earth.
This majority report is literally grbund
to pieces between the two more ableand
patriotic documents given to the public,
one of them by conscientious Republi
cans, the other by constitutional Dem—
cruts. Both are as correct in their as
sumptions of law as the report of the
reckless and disreputable partisan ma
jority is wrong and false.
This impeaiment qustiou is one of gi
gantic magnitude, and of the most vital
importance. It involves the most mo
mentous questions ever brought before
the American people for consideration.
The very existence of our form of free
government is staked on the issue., If
the President should be impeached and
removed, on such grounds as are laid
down in the majority report, a prece
dent will be established which would
leave us a prey to such ills as have
made the very name of government
a mockery in the neighboring republic
of Mexico. We might then expect to
see a President removed at any time by
the mere mockery of a trial, whenever
a sufficient majority of the House and
Senate should stand opposed to him.
The Executive branch of the Govern
ment would thus be made the subservi
ent tool of a partisan majority of Con
gress.
The people of these United States are
not prepared quietly to submit to any
such outrage. A large majority of theta
are this day opposed not only to this
bold attempt at usurpation on the part
of Congress, but to the entire policy of
the fanatics who control that body.
And, should Congress dare to attempt
the removal of the President on any
such frivolous charges, the masses will
right the matter very speedily.
There is little excitement now. The
report of the majority of the Committee
in favor of Impeachment has scarcely
created a ripple on the surface of public
opinion. The reason of that is because
no one believes that a majority of the
Lower House can be induced to recom
mend action by the Senate. We hope
that view is well founded. The busi
ness of the country, and all its best in
terests imperatively demand such a pru
dent display of wisdom and moderation,
Every State in Mexico gave a majority
for Juarez for President.
'~~Educafe ter."
Any one who will take the trouble to
look into the last issue of the Lancastei%
Examiner will find, under the above'
',beading, 'an article in its editorial col
umns advocating with great ferVency
the education of those whom it styles
"Our Masters." And who are these
"Our Masters?" The article does not
leave us in doubt. .With explicate
clearness it states that they are the ne
groes of the South. And has it really
come to that? Are these barbarian
blacks in truth "Our Masters?" Radi
cal newspapers openly confess that they
are; and, as we look at the condition of
ten of the once sovereign States which
were a partof what was once the Union,
we must admit that there is truth in
the degrading confession.
Every one of the States recently in
rebellion is under negro domination.
The whites in the South are in a condi
tion of abject political servitude to the
ignorant and degraded blacks. Sambo
and Cuffee,too stupid to remember their
names, lord it over men and women
of the same better blood which we
proudly beast. The negro is unques
tionably master of the white people of
the Southern States. But is he "our
master" as well? Unquestionably he
will be, if the Radical policy is carried
out.
None but negroes, or miserable white
wretches elected by negro votes can suc
ceed in reaching Congress from the
South if the reconstruction policy pre
vails. Thus that whole section will be
represented by negroes, or by white
men who are mean enough to make
themselves fawning sycophants to the
negro for the sake of securing his
vote. In future Presidential elections
the vote of these negroized States
will be cast solid for the man
who will be most lavish of promises
to the negro. Is it strange, then, that
the Examiner, and other Radical news
papers, should admit that the negroes
are "our masters?" By the terms of
what is called the reconstruction policy
they are really made so. What, then,
shall we do about It? The Examiner
confesses that they are unfit to exercise
the right of citizenship, and cries out
"educate our masters." The Demo
cratic party says " we will have no such
masters." Which party will the white
men of Pennsylvania follow at the
coming Presidential election ?
Acknowledging Their Errors
Gradually the Radicals are being
forced to admit the want of wisdom dis
played by them iu the legislation with
which the Rump Congress has cursed
the country. Finding they can deceive
the people no longer, they are forced to
make the most humiliating confessions.
Republican newspapers are just now
filled with admissions of the folly and
stupidity of the men they but a short
time ago extolled as the wisest and most
sagacious statesmen. There is not a
single question of public interest which
has been handled by Congress, during
the war, and since its close, that seems
to have been treated aright. Their
legislative acts have been a continued
series of political blunders. The great
folly of many of the more prominent
measures adopted are so glaring that
their want of wisdom can no longer be
concealed. On the important subject of
taxation a Radical cotemporary thus
speaks :
This question of taxation is becoming
more and inure a subject of paramount
importance, and certainty merits the grav
est consideration of our legislators. It can
not be denied that the present system is
fraught with injustice through an unequal
distribution of its burdens ; that it paves
the way to the 'mist flagrant venality
through the chnnirtince of unprincipled
employers; and that, in inany,cases, it is so
microns as to destroy the resources from
which it seeks to obtain a revenue.
We regard the above candid confes
sion as a decidedly hopeful indication.
It shows that the recent severe defeats
wnich the Radicals have sustained are
teaching them a little wisdom. The
peopleAave only to keep on as they
have begun, to insure the eventual
adoption of the proper financial policy,
and wise and judicious legislation ou
all iniportautquestions. \Vhat is needed
is a complete revolution in the political
complexion of Congress. The sooner
that is brought about the better for the
country. Of that fact the people of the
North are becoming well convinced.
Cheating Pennsylvania
In looking over the lists of white
negroes who have been elected as dele
gates to the ilougrel State Conventions
iu the South, we have not noticed the
name of a single Pennsylvanian. Ho7v
does that ha ',pro ? A large majority of
the dirty scamps who disgrace a white
skin by seeking a seat in these bogus
bodies are recently-imported Northern
ers. New England sends dozens of ca
daverous slab-sided Yankees to repre
sent different districts. The extreme
Northwestern States have their full
share of filthy fellows who are setting
up for Congress in strong negro dis
tricts. But Pennsylvania, stupid old
Dutch Pennsylvania, has been cheated
out of her proper share of the spoils.
How could that'have happened' Had
we no clerks in the Freedmen's Bureau,
no hangers on about the armies, no
teachers of negro schools, nothing out
of which to manufacture a Southern
statesman of the new school? The mat
ter is worthy of Congressional investi
gation, and we call the attention of Mr.
Stevens to it. Let him attend to the
matter at once.
Why a Political Preacher Favors Negro
Suffrage
Ben Wade and the whole gang of
Radical politicians having failed to
force negro suffrage upon the unwilling
people of Ohio, the political preachers
have taken it up, and are advocating it
from their pulpits. One S. E. Collins,
of the Baptist Church, delivered a
stump speech in his church at Mans
field on Thanksgiving day, in which
he said :
Negroes shoull have tho right to the ha
lot for various reasons, principally for tl
reason that their votes would serve to neu
tralize the influence of the foreign Roman
ist element, which is flocking into the
country and participating in the elections,
in utter ignorance 01 the true idea of Repub
lican liberty.
We may expect to have that cry
taken up again by the Republican party
before long, and to hear a concerted
howl from all the time-serving political
preachers who are still out of the Peni
tentiary, or who have not been driven
into exile on account of an exposure of
their rascalities.
SHIPBUILDINCI has been almost en
tirely suspended throughout the coun
try. In Philadelphia there is not u
single vessel on the stocks of greater
dimensions than a coasting collier, and
many hands are entirely out of employ
ment in consequence. The Radical
policy is destructive, not only of peace
and that fraternal feeling which should
be fostered among our people, but
equally as fatal to all the great material
interests of the nation.
THE Lynchburg (Va.) News says it
has heard that two hundred and thirty
four farms in Bedford county are soon
to be sold by the United States revenue
officers for the non-payment of taxes.
It is difficult to believe the government
will sanction any such proceeding. The
Southern people are in no condition to
pay taxes—they cannot get food for
themselves and their families. Their
farms, if sold, would not bring one•
fourth of their real value,
Teitinionlif ^ iiiiiiiiet to Senator Wa!
The Age comes to us with a very fall
report of the prodeedinga at a magnift-'
cent banquet tendered as a testimonial
to Senator Wallace, Chairman of the
Democratic State Cential Committee,
for his services in that aninous . pcaition.
On Wednesday evening lastrinvited
giieSts to n the number of about one
hundred and fifty sat down to a
splendid entertainment, in the fine
Banqueting Hall of the Continental
Hotel. Mr. Wallace occupied the seat
of honor, and the table wile graced by
the presence of very many of the most
prominent Democrats of Philadelphia.
Letters were received from Geo. H.
Pendleton, T. Q. Adams, of Massa
chusetts, T. A. Hendricks and
other leaders of the party at a dis
tance. Mr. Wallace made a very able
speech in reply to the first toast, "The
§tate of Pennsylvania," in which he
reviewed with power and great clear
ness and logical precision the political
issues of the day. Ex-Governor Bigler,
Judge Woodward, and other prominent
Democrats also made short addresses.
The occasion was one of decided pleas
ure to all concerned That Senator Wal
lace well merits this mark of favor no
one doubts.
The Louisiana Negro State Convention.
The Negro State Convention of Lou
isiana is a beautiful specimen of what
now constitutes the bulk of the once
powerful Republican party. It is a fair
sample of destructive, crazy radicalism.
The following resolution was voted
down on Wednesday :
Resolved, That we hereby utterly repudi
ate all desires for class legislation and all
desire to Africanize the State; that we do not
as a people or a party desire, or meditate,
dr countenance bloodshed or revenge ; that
all we claim is equality before the law for
all men without uistlnction of race or color
or previous condition ; that we deprecate
the sentiments expressed in a leading arti
cle in the :New Orleans Republican, iu its
issue of the inst., and denounce the
said article as uncalled for, and incendiary
lid dangerous to the best interests of tin
,arty and declare that said article does no
•epresent sentiments, wishes or pur
)1,8024 ~ f the Radical Republicau party ID ,
uuisiuuu or the colored race.
Cuffee and Pomp, and the meaner
white negroes who consort with them,
are not going to declare any disinclina
tion to indulge in revenge and blood
shed. Such a resolution is entirely too
mild to suit their "loyal" stomachs.
They are not to be put off with "equal
ity before the law." That would only
put them on the same level with their
former masters. They have the whites
under their feet now, and they intend
to keep them there so long as they can.
The people of the North are looking on
at the spectacle presented by these
negro State Conventions and are prepar
ing to annihilate the party which has
introduced them.;
Abraham Lincoln's Opposition to Negro
Suffrage.
Abraham Lincoln was uniformly, and
to the last hour of his life steadfastly
hostile to negro suffrage. t He never
abandoned the belief that it would be
improper and dangerous to incorporate
so large a mass of ignorance in the body
politic. On the very last day of his life
the'question of reconstruction was dis
cussed in a Cabinet meeting, and a plan
partially arranged, looking to the ad
justment of the difficulties. There
was no clause incorporating negro
suffrage in it. At a cabinet meeting
held very shortly after the accession of
President Johnson the same subject
came up, and the Cabinet were a unit
then against negro suffrage. Secretary
Stanton. in his evidence before the Ju
diciary Committee, eays:
The President expressed his views very
clearly and distinctly. I expressed my
views, and other members of the Cabinet
expressed their views. The objection of the
President to tin owing the franchise open to
the colored people appeared to be fixed,
and I think every member of the Cabinet
assented to the arrangement as it was speci
fied in the proclamation relative to North
Carolina. Af er that I do not remember
that the subject was ever discussed in the
Cabinet.
The insane project of making voters
of all the barbarian negroes of the South
came from Congress. That body is
alone responsible for the iniquitous and
destructive system which is now work
ing ruin in the South. Stanton and
some others who were members of Mr.
Lincoln's Cabinet, after the adoption of
negro suffrage by Congress, supported
it. But it never received the sanction
of Mr. Lincoln.
THE Radicals after havinz exhausted
their power in the North, to radicalize
the South, are now obliged to resort to
the power they have created in the
South to preserve their existence in the
North. It is for this purpose that Thad.
Stevens proposes to carve three or four
States out of the State or satrapy of
Texas. The Radicals have lost confi
dence in their ability to carry the North
ern States in the next Presidential
election, hence they resort to the at
tempt to invest their negro proteges
with the political power of the South,
depending upon this means to elect the
next President and preserve their con
trol over the Government. All such
subterfuges are vain. Radicalism is
doomed, and it is no more in the power
of the negroes of the South than of
their leaders in the North to avert its
fate.
The Louisiana Convention
The Louisiana State Convention is
composed of seventy-eight members.
Forty-four of these are Africans, a ma
jority being genuine plantation ne
groes, with no infusion of white blood.
The temporary President was a huge
Congo negro of the blackest type, who
on taking the chair said he was " On'ed
by de selection ob de Conwen Hon." A
half-white negro was elected Secretary,
and a white fellow, meaner than any
nigger in the body, accepted the subor
dinate position of Doorkeeper. That is
a fair specimen of what the Republican
party is in the only States where it has
had any success lately.
Mr. Seymour Declines the Nomination for
President
The following letter from Governor
Seymour, of New York, will be read
with regretful interest by every Demo
crat in Pennsylvania. The ability, the
sterling honesty and the exalted patri
otism of Governor Seymour have made
his name familiar as a household word
to every conservative man in the coun
try
UTICA, Monday, Nov. 26, 1867.
To the Editor of the Democratic Union, Oneido
SIR: I see that you have put my name at
the head of your paper as a candidate for
the office of President of the United States.
Other journals in this, as well as in the East
ern and Western States, have also thus ex
pressed their wishes for my nomination by
the Democratic National Convention. These
marks of good-will and confidence give me
great pleasure, but I am compelled to say
that I am not and cannot be a candidate for
the Presidency. As my reasons for saying
this are personal, it is not necessary to state
them. They in no degree grow out of a
waning interest in the great and serious
questions which divide parties in this coun
try. On time other hand, I feel that we are
about to enter upon au earnest and thought
ful discussion of the condition of public
The passions and prejudices excited by
civil war are dying out. All now see that
questions of finance, tariff, the rights of
States, and the powers of Government,
cannot be settled by clamor and calumnies,
Both parties feel that the grave problems
growing out of the disordered state of the
country must be confronted, and that due
respect for their organizations demand an
earnest and thoughtful inquiry as to the
best models of lightening the load of debt
and taxation which hinder the business of
our land and weighs down with heavy
shackles the arms of labor. In trying in
the future, as T. have in the peat, to uphold
principles which I deem to be right, I can
do battle with more vigor when I am not a
candidate for official position. Very truly
yours, 50., ilordazo SEYMOUR.3I
The Sontkarkltegrollopremaey Conven
tion —Progress of the Black Retroltt•
AlNoLts
-''The Alabama Negro Supremacy Conven
tion commenced its sittings in Montgomery
on the sth Inst. It has therefore, been in
operation some twenty-five, days. The sit- •
tinge of the. Louisiana Convention began on
the 243 d inst., and it is as yetscarcely ender
'full headway. But alreadg a white mem
ber has found it necessary to repudiate in
step) the violent and incendiary language of
one of the organs of the GonVentionin New
OrleanS, used in an article which we re
produce in another column. The Virginia
Convention, which will probably be the
most important and exciting of them all,
will commence on the 3d of December—to
morrow. The Convention in Georgia has
been called for Monday, December 9. No
date has been assigned for holding the con
ventions in the remaining unreconstructed
States. Indeed, it is not positively ascer
tained whether. in one or two a sufficient
number of votes have been polled to an•
thorlze the District commanders in calling
the conventions in those States at all. This
is the case with Arkansas, and, perhaps,
with Florida. In South Carolina, also, the
vote is very close, the total showing so far
only a slight preponderance in favor of
holding the Convention.
That we are justified in designating these
assemblages "negro supremacy conven
tions' will be readily conceded by any
candid person who has kept the run of the
proceedings of the pioneer convocation—the
Convention in Montgomery, Alabama. In
that body the Radicals—black 'and white—
have an overwhelming majority, and they
have gone to work with all the the zeal
and hot temper of men who have sud
denly become possessed of some signal
piece of good fortune or have been mugi•
cully invested with 60E110 extraordinary
power and influence. Their leaders are of
the tar, pitch and turpentine style of talkers,
rabid, prejudiced and ignorant, of brutal in
stincts and entertaining an intolerable aver
sion to the white population in the State.
The few moderate men in the Convention
cannot withstand this torrent of St. Do
mingo radicalism, and are obliged to give
way before it or submit to vile personal
abuse and insult. Persouul violence has
even been resorted to for the purpose of
coercing an anti•proscription brother into
the radical way of thinking. Among their
first acts was to endeavor to abolish the ex
isting State government—which is yet
clothed with some of the garments of reason
and is willing to see justice done the white
race—and erect in its stead a government
with Smith() in all his glory as ihe chief—
the head, body and soul. Then the :malt
intolerant ordinances were eased, out
stripping Congress in the extent of
disfranchising w.iite men. It was even
impudently urged that the Military bill
did not go far enough in wreaking
vengeance upon the overpowered South•
ern white people, but new tortures
in the sllape of confiscation, expatriation
and disability to enjoy or exorcise the cum-
monest rights of citizenship were among
the degrading devices of these princes of
darkness in convention assembled; and
toned down,us some of their incendiary and
revolutionary schemes have been, by hints
from the central black organizers in Wash
ington, the leaders were, according to our
correspondents at Montgomery, at last
accounts . still engaged in caucusing
*upon those disgraceful measures. At one
of these caucuses a threat was made by
one of theleaders that if the majority report,
which disfranchises all who attetnpt to de
feat the now constitution by declining to
vote upon it, and, in addition, proposes MI
oath in all future elections which will prac
tically disfranchise a great number more,
were not accepted by the party, he should
himself bolt and use all his influence to de
feat the work of the Convention—in short,
do himself what he was anxious that others
should be disfranchised for attempting to
do. The scheme of mukiug the white citi
zens pay the blacks fur services from the
date of the emancipation proclamation is
among other preposterous suggestions
which this motley assemblage has
given birth to. But it is unneces
sary to multiply evidences of hatred and
malignity, united with the most egregious
ignorance and downright impudence,
which the leaders in this Alabama convo
cation have displayed in their efforts to de
grade the white and elevate to an utterly
unlit position the black race of the South.
It remains to be seen whether the couven•
Lions that are to follow will adopt the course
of this pioneer black radical effort at Mont
gomery and subject themselves to an equal
measure of opprpbrium and disgust —N.
Y. Herald.
The lutitenennuent Question.
The Washington correspondent of the
Y. Herald says :
The feeling on impeachment is undergo
ing a visible modification. When a ma
jority was reported favorable to the measure
members jumped hastily to the conclusion
that some additional testimony had been
secured which, even without its being made
known, was sufficient to warrant them in
ranging themselves on the side of the ma
jority of the commit tee. Sufficient time has
now elapsed for the testimony upon which
most reliance was placed to form au im
peachment motion to receive careful atten
tion, and prominent radicals declare in
literal terms that the President appears in
even a better light than his friends might
have anticipated. The more the impeach
ment testimony is read by members not
previously blinded by prejudice, the grerter
the conviction becomes that the whole
matter has been a huge imposition on the
sense and patience both of Congress and the
country. A well informed radical Senator
stated to-day that, though doubtful of the
result a few days ago, he feels confident
now that the question will be beaten in
the House by a majority of over thirty. The
members from Ohio are divided in senti
ment, and also those from Pennsylvania.
New Jersey is decidedly against it, together.
with Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island and Connecticut. New York
is divided on the general vote. However,
a majority of Republicans will be found in
array against impeachment. The men of
sense and business in both houses are
eagerly desirous of having the question
brought up at once and disposed of for
ever. They are irritated at having the
present valuable time wasted in its discus
sion.
EMZEIZI2E2
The trustees of the State Agricultural
College met at Harrisburg last week, when
Mr. Watts, President, reported that the
farm of Mr. Harvey, in Chester county,
had been purchased for $17,500, for the pur
pose of making it the Model Farm in the
eastern part of the State. This farm, as we
learn from the West Chester Republican, is
located in London Grove township, near
West Grove Station, on the Philadelphia
and 13. C. Railroad—one of the best neigh
borhoods in Chester county, The land is
in a high state of cultivation, and gently
rolling. The buildings consist of a large
stone house, furnished in modern style
and surrounded by a beautiful lawn of
forest and ornamental trees. The barn is
large and the outbuildings all that could
be desired. There is also a hot-house
grapery, with an almost endless variety
of fruit trees and shrubbery. Spring water
is forced to the house and barn, and also a
reservoir ou an eminence on the property,
from which the whole farm can be supplied
with pure water. It is understood that the
citizens of Chester county contributed
about half the purchase money, so as to
secure the farm within their county limits.
—Reading Journal.
"The Oln Capitol Prison."
We wish somebody would give the pub
lic an impartial, accurate account of what
took place during the war in the Old Capi •
tot Prison. Think of American citizens
being snatched up and held in confinement
One, two, and even three months, denied
all communication with their friends, and
charged extortionate prices for what they
desired. And when the facts are iuvesti•
gated, no substantial charges are made out.
Think of prisoners not being permitted to
hold converse with their counsel unless in
the presence of a detective. Think of men
being persecuted by their jailor until in
sheerdesperation they commit suicide. We
believe that if the people understood a
tithe of the secrets of the Old Capitol Prison,
we would have much less said about the
enormities of Libby Prison.— Washington
E. ~press.
odd Fellowship in the United tstates.
'the report of the Grand Secretary of the
Order in the United States has just been is
sued. He reports the membership at the
present time to be 217,886, there having been
an accession the past year of 33,764 members.
The receipts for the past year have been
$1,965,713 01, of which $1,760.123 56 were
from bodies under the jurisdiction of the
Grand Lodge, and $305,593 45 from bodies
under the jurisdiction of the Grand En
campment. The total relief dispensed in
the same time was $690,675 97, of which
$825,820 25 were by bodies under the juris
diction of the Grand Lodge. Therellef dis
pensed by the bodies under the jurisdiction
of the Grand Encampment was $64,855
Heinous Outrage by n Negro
PIERCETON, Ind., Nov. 29.—An outrage
was committed between twelve and one
o'clock to-day, on the person of Mrs. J. S.
Baker, wife of a well known and respected
citizen, living a mile and a quarter south
of this place. A negro entered the house
during the absence of Mr. Baker, and ask•
ed for some apples, and seeing Mrs. Baker
was alone, drew a revolver and threatened
her life if she did uot submit to his vile de
signs. After accomplishing his purpose,
he left the house. The alarm was given,
and persons are in pursuit of the negro. It
is thought he cannot escape. There is great
excitement in the community.
The Habits of the President
At a recent temperance meeting in Wash
ington, Congressman Paine charged in the
most positive terms that President Johnson
is a drunkard. B. B. French, Esq., Com
missioner of Public Buildings, in a note to
the National Intelligencer, contradicts this
assertion in the most positive manner, from
his own daily intercourse with the Presi
dent. He says:
"I have Seen him at all hoursof the day—
in his office, in his Sleeping-room, in the
reception-loom—and never have I seen him
in the least under the influence of strong
drink, for did .T.'efer see him taste any 'but
once.'!
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and Howe of
Repreeentativea: • '•
The continued disorganization of the
Union, to which the President has so often
called the attention of Congress, is yet a
subject of profound and patriotic conoern.
We may, however, find some relief from
that ,anzlety in the reflection that the pain
ful political situation; although before un
tried by ourselves, is not new in the expe
rience of nations. Political science, per
haps as highly perfected in our own time
and country as in auy other, has not yet
disclosed any means by which civil wars
can be absolutely prevented. An enlight
ened • nation, however, with a wise and
beneficent Constitution of free government,
may, diminish their frequency and mitigate
their severity by directing all its proceed
ings in accordance with its fundamental
law.
When a civil war has been brought to a
close, it is manifestly the first interest and
duty of the State to repair the injuries which
the war has inflicted, and to secure the
benefit of the lessons it teaches as fully and
as speedily as possible. This duty was,
upon the termination of the rebellion,
promptly accepted, not only by the Execu
tive Department, but by the insurrection
ary States themselves, and restoration, in
the first moment of peace, was believed to
be as easy and certain as it was indispen
sable. The expectations, however, then ao
reasonably and confidently entertained,
were disappointed by legislation from which
I felt constrained, by my obligations to the
Constitution, to withhold my assent.
It is therefore a source of profound regret
that, in complying with the obligation im
posed upon the President by the Constitu•
Lion, to give to Congress from time to time
information of the state of the Union, I am
unable to communicate any definitive ad
justment, satisfactory to the American Peo
ple, of the questions which, since the close
of the rebellion, have agitated the public
mind. On the contrary, candor compels
me to declare that at this time there is no
Union as our Fathers understood the term,
and as they meant it to be understood by us.
The Union which they established can exist
only where all the States are represented In
both Houses of Congress ; where one Slate
is as free as another to regulate its internal
concerns according to its own will ; and
where the laws of the central Government,
strictly confined to matters of national juris
diction, apply with equal force to all the
people of every section. That such is not
the present " suite of the Union" is a mel
ancholy fact; and we all must acknowledge
that the restoration of the States to their
proper legal relations with the Federal Gov
ernment and with one another, according
to the terms of the original compact, would
be the greatest temporal blessing which
God, in his kindest providence, could be
stow upon this nation. It becomes our im
perative duty to consider whether or not it
impotelble to effect this most desirable
consummation.
The Union and the Constitution are: in
separable. As long us one is obeyed I v all
parties, the other will be preserved, mid if
one is destroyed both roust perish togetner.
'rho destruction of the Constitution wall be
followed by other and still greater calami
ties. It was ordained not only to form a
more perfect union between the States, but
to "establish justice, insure domestic tran•
quillity, provide for the common defence,
promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity." Nothing but implicit obedience
to its requirements in all parts of the coun
try will accomplish thesegreat ends. With
out that obedience, we can look forward
only to continual outrages upon individual
rights, incessant breaches of the public
peace, national weakness, financial dis
honor, the total loss of our prosperity, the
general corruption of morals, and the final
extinction of popular freedom. To saye our
country from evils so appalling as these, we
should renew our efforts again and again.
To me the process of restoration seems
perfectly plain and simple. It consi inert -
ly in a faithful : oplication of the Censt iti
lion and laws, ie execution of the alas
is not now obsti..card or opposed uy phi si
cal force. The., is no military or eit.er
necessity, real or pretended, whieh can pre
vent obedience to the Cons.dtition, either
North or South. All the rights and all the
obligations of States and iiidi Id uals can be
protected and euloreed I , _ means per
fectly consistent with the fundamen
tal law. 'rile c3urts may be every
where open, and, if open, their process
would be unimpeded. Crimes against the
United States can be prevented or punished
by the proper judicial authorities, in a man
ner entirely practicable and legal. 'there
is, therefore, uo reason why the Constitu
tion should not be obeyed, unless those
who exercise its power, have determined
that it shall be disregarded and violated.
The mere naked will of this Government,
or of some one or more of its branches, is
the only obstacle that can exist to a perfect
union of all the States.
On this momentous question, and some
of the measures growing out of it, I have
had thd misfortune to differ from Congress,
and have expressed my convictions with
out reserve, though with becoming defer
ence to the opinion of the Legislative De
partment. Those convictions are not only
unchanged. but strengthened by subse
quent events and further reflection. The
transcendent importance of the subject will
be a sufficient excuse for calling your at
tention to some of the reasons which have
so strongly influenced toy own judgment.
The hope that we may all finally concur in
a mode of settlement, consistent at once
with our true interests and with our sworn
duties to the Constitution, is too natural and
too just to be easily relinquished.
It is clear to my apprehension that the
States lately in rebellion are still members
of the National Union. When did they
cease to be so? The "ordinances of seces ,
sion," adopted by a portion (in most of
them a very small portion) of their citi
zens, were mere nullities. If we admit now
that they were valid and effectual for the
purpose intended by their authors, we
sweep from under our feet the whole
ground upon which we justified the war.
Were those States afterwards expelled from
the Union by the war? The direct con
trary was averred by this Government to
be its purpose, and was so understood by
all those who gave their blood and treasure
to aid in its prosecution. It cannot be that
a successful war, waged for the preserva
tion of the Union, had the legal effect of
dissolving it. The victory of the nation's
arms was not the disgrace of her policy;
the defeat of secession on the battle-field
was not the triumph of its lawless princi
ple. Nor could Congress, witn or without
the consent of the Executive, do anything
which would have the effect, directly or in
directly, of separating the States from each
other. To dissolve the Union is to repeal
the Constitution which holds it together,
and that is a power which does not belong
to any Department of this Government, or
to all of them united.
This is so plain that it has been acknowl•
edged by all branches of the Federal Gov
ernment. The Executive (my predecessor
as well as myself) and the heads of all the
Departments have uniformly acted upon
the principle that the Union is not only un
dissolved, but indissoluble. Congress sub
mitted en amendment of the Constitution
to be ratified by the Southern States, and
accepted their nets of ratification as a neces
sary and lawful, exercise of their highest
function. If they were not Slates, or were
States out of the Union, their consent to a
chew() in the fundamental law of the Union
would have been nugatory, and Congress,
in asking it, committed a political absurd
ity. The Judiciary has also given the sol
emn sanction of its authority to the same
view of the case. The Judges of the Su
preme Court have included the Southern
States in their circuits, and they are con
stantly, in bark and elsewhere, exercising
jurisdiction which does not belong to them,
unless those States are States of the Union.
If the Southern States are component
parts of the Union, the Constitution is the
supreme law for them, as it is for all the
other States, They are bound to obey it,
and so are we. The right of the Federal
Government, which is clear and unques
tionable, to enforce the Constitution upon
them, implies the correlative obligation on
our part to observe its limitations and exe
cute its guaranties. Without the Constitu
tion we are nothing; by, through, and
under the Constitution we are what it
makes us. We may doubt the wisdom of
the law, we may riot approve of its provis
ions, but we cannot violate it merely be•
cause it seetns to confine our powers within
limits narrower than we could wish. It is
not a question of individual, or class, or
sectional interest, touch less of party pre
dominance, but of duty—of high and sacred
duty—which we are all sworn to perform.
If we cannot support the Constitution with
the cheerfu alacrity of those who love and
believe in it, we must give to it at least the
fidelity of public servants who act under
solemn obligations and commands which
they dare not disregard.
The constitutional duty Is not the only one
which requires the States to be restored.
There is another consideration which,
though of minor importance, is yet of great
weight. On the 22d day of July, 1861, Con
gress declared, by an almost unanimous
vote of both Houses, that the war should be
conducted solely for the purpose of pre
serving the Union, and maintaining the
supremacy of the Federal Constitution and
laws, without impairing the dignity, equali
ty and rights of the States or of individuals,
and that when this was done the war should
cease. I do not say that this declaration is
personally binding on those who joined in
making it, any more than individual mem
bers of Congress are personally bound to
pay a public debt created under a law for
which they voted. But it was a solemn,
public, official pledge of the national honor,
and I cannot imagine upon what grounds
the repudiation of it is to be justified. If
it be said that we are not bound to keep
faith with rebels, let it be remembered that
this promise was not made to rebels only.
Thousands of true men in the South were
drawn to our standard by it, and hundreds
of thousands in the North gave their lives
in the belief that it would be carried out.—
It was made on the 'lay after the first great
battle of the war hai been fought and lost.
All patriotic and intelligent men then saw
the necessity of giving such an assurance,
and believen that without it the war would
end in disaster to our cause. Having 'given
that assurance in the extremity of our peril,
the violation of it now, in the day of our
power, would be a rude rending of that good
faith which holds the moral world together;
our country would cease to have any claim
upon the confidence of men; it would make
the,war not only a failure, but a fraud.
Being sincerely oonvinced that these
views are correct, I would be unfaithful
to my duty If I did not recommend the re : .
peal of the acts of Congress which place
ten of the Southern States under the domi
nation of military wasters. If calm re
flection shall satisfy a mai orityof your hon
orable bodies that the acts referred to are
not only a violation of the national faith,
but in direct conflict with the Constitution,
I dare not permit myself to doubt that you
will immediately strike them from the
statute book.
To demonstrate the unconstitutional char
acter of those acts, I need do no more than
refer to their general provisions. It must
be seen at once that they are not authorized.
To dictate what alterations shall be made
in the Constitutions of the several States ;
to control the elections of State legislators
and State officers, members of Congress,
and electors of President and Vice Presi
dent, by arbitrarily declaring who shall
vote and who shall be excluded from that
privilege ; to dissolve State Legislatures or
prevent them from assembling; to dismiss
judges and other civil functionaries of the
State, and appoint others without regard to
State law; to organize and operate all the
political machinery of the States; to regu
late the whole administration of their do
mestic and local affairs according to the
mere will of strange and irresponsible
agents, sent among them for that purpose
—these are peVers not granted to the Fed
eral Governtnent or to any one of its
branches. Not being granted, we violate
our trust by assuming them us palpably as
we would by acting in the face of a plsi
live interdict; for the Constitution forbids
us to do whatever it does not affirmatively
authorize either by express words or by
clear implication. If the authority we de
sire to use does not come to us through the
Constitution, we can exercise It only by
usurpation; and usurpation is the most
dangerous of political crimes. By that
crime the enemies of free government in
all ages have worked out their designs
against public liberty and private right.
It leads directly and immediately to the es
tablishment of absolute rule; for undele
gated power is always unlimited and un
restrained.
The acts of Congress in question are not
only objectionable for their assumption of
tingranted power, but many of their pro-
Visions are in conflict with the direct prohi
bitions of the Constitution. The Coustitu•
lion commands that a republican form of
government shall be guaranteed to all the
States; that no person shall be deprived of
life, liberty, or property without duo pro
cess of law, arrested without a judicial war
rant, or punished without a fair trial before
an impartial Jury; that the privilege of
habeas corpus shall not be denied Maui° of
peace; and that no bill of attainder shall
be passed even against u single individual.
Yet the system of measures established by
these scat of Congress does totally subvert
and destroy the form us well as the sub-
stance of republican government in
the ten States to which they ap
ply. tt binds them hand and foot
❑ absolute slavery, and subjects thorn
to e strange and hostile power, more un
limited and more likely to be abused than
any other now known among civilized men.
It tramples dawn all those rights in Which
the essence of liberty consists, and which a
free government is always most careful to
protect. It denies the habeas corpus and
the trial by jury. Personal freedom, prop
erty, and life, if assailed by the passion, the
prejudice, or the rapacity of the ruler, have
no security whatever. It has the effect of
a bill of attainder, or bill of pains and pen
alties, not upon a few Individuals, but upon
whole masses, including the millions who
inhabit the subject Slates, and even their
unborn children. These wrongs, being
expressly forbidden, cannot be constitu
tionally inflicted upon any portion of our
people, no mutter how they may have come
within our jurisdiction, and no matter
whether they live in States, Territories, or
districts.
I have no desire to save from the proper
and just consequences of their great crime
those who engaged in rebellion against the
Government ; but as a mode of punish
ment ale measures under consideration are
the most unreasonable that could be in
vented. Many of those people are perfectly
innocent; many kept their fidelity to the
Union untainted to the last; many were
incapable of any legal offence; a large pro
portion even of the persons able to bear
arms were forced into rebellion against
their will; and of those who are guilty
with their own consent, the degrees of guilt
are as various aS the shades of their charac-
ter and temper. But these acts of Congress
confound them all together in one common
doom. Indiscriminate vengeance upon
classes, sects, and parties, or upon whole
communities, for offences committed by a
portion of them t ' rvainst the governments
to which they owed obedience, was com-
[non in the barbarous ages of the world.
But Christianity and civilization have made
such progress that recourse to a punish
ment so cruel and unjust would meet with
the condemnation of all unprejudiced and
right minded men. The punitive justice of
this age, and especially of this country,
does not consist in stripping whole States
of their liberties, and reducing all their
people, without distinction, to the condition
of slavery. It deals separately with each
routines itself to the forms of
law, arid vindirates its own purity by an
impartial examination of every case before
ti competent judicial tribunal. It this does
not satisfy all our desires with regard to
Southern rebels, let us console ourselves
by reflecting that a free Constitution, tri
umphant in war and unbroken in peace, is
worth far more to us and our children than
the gratification of any present feeling.
I am aware it is assumed that this system
of government for the Southern States Is
not to be perpetual. It is true this military
government is to be only provisional, but
it is through this temporary evil that a
greater evil is to be made perpetual. If the
guarantees of the Constitution can be
broken provisionally to serve a temporary
purpose, and in a part only of the country,
we can destroy them everywhere and for
all time. Arbitrary measures often change,
but they generally change for the worse.
It is curse of despotism that it has no
halting prace,..- The intermitted exercise of
its power bi.ings no sense of security to its
subjects; for they can never know what
more they will be called to endure when
its red right hand is armed to plague them
again. Nor is it possible to conjecture how
or where power, unrestrained by law, may
seek its next victims. The States that are
still free may be enslaved at any moment ;
tor if the Constitution does not protect all,
it protects none.
It is manifestly and avowedly the object
of these laws to confer upon , negroeti the
privilege of voting, and to disfranchise such
a number of white citizens as will give the
former a clear majority at all elections in
the Southern States. This, to the minds of
some persons, is so important, that a vio
lation of the Constitution is justified as a
means of bringing it about. The morality
is always false which excuses a wrong be
cause it proposes to accomplish a desirable
end. We are not permitted to do evil that
good may come. But in this case the end
itself is evil, as well as the means. The
subjugation of the States to negro domina
tion would ba worse then the military
despotism under which they..are now suffer
ing. It was believed beforehand that the
people would endure any amount of mili
tary oppression, for any length of time,
rather than degrade themselves by subjec
tion to the negro race Therefore they have
been left without a choice. Negro suffrage
was established by act of Congress, and the
military officers were commanded to super
intend the process of clothing the negro
race with the political privileges torn from
white men.
The blacks in the South are entitled to be
well anti humanely governed, and to have
the protection of just laws for all their rights
of person nod property. I f it were practi
cable at this time to give them a government
exclusively their own, tinder which they
might manage their own affairs in their own
way, it would become a grave question
whether we ought to do so, or whether
common humanity would not require us to
save them from themselves. But, under
the circumstances, this is only a speculative
point. It is not proposed merely that they
shall govern themselves, but that they shall
rule the white race, make and administer
State laws, elect Presidents and members of
Congress, and shape to a greater or less ex
tent the future destiny of the whole country.
Would such a trust and power be safe in
such hands?
The peculiar qualities which should char
acterize any people who are fit to decide
upon the management of public affairs Gtr
a great State have seldom been combined.
It is the glory of white men to know that
they have had these qualities in sufficient
measure to build upon thus continent a great
political fabric, and to preserve its stability
for more than ninety years, while in every
other part of the world all similar expert.
merits have failed. But if anything can be
proved by known facts—if all reasoning
upon evidence is not abandoned, it must be
acknowledged that in the progress of nations
negroes have shown less capacity for gov
ernment than any other race of people. No
independent government of any form has
ever been successful in their hands. On the
contrary, wherever they have been left to
their own devices, they have shown a con
stant tendency to relapse into barbartstn.
In the Southern States, however, Congress
has undertaken to confer upon them the
privilege of the ballot. Just released from
slavery, it may be doubted whether, as a
class, they know more than their ancestors
how to organize and regulate civil society.
Indeed, it is admitted that the blacks of the
South are not only regardless of the rights
of property, but so utterly ignorant of public
affairs that their voting can consistin nothing
more than carrying a ballot to the place
where they are directed to deposit it. I
need not remind you that the exercise of the
elective franchise is the highest attribute of
an American citizen, and that, when guided
by virtue, intelligence, patriotism, and a
proper appreciation of our freejnstitutions,
it constitutes the true basis of a democratic
form of government, in which the sdyereign
power is lodged in the body of the people.
A trust artilmitilly created, not for its own
sake, but solely as a Means of promoting
the general welfare, its Influence for good
.
must neneesarily,depend upon the elevated
obliuteri add true allegiance of the elector.
It ought therefore to be reposed in none ex
cept those•who are fitted.morally andmen
tally to administer it well; for If conferred
upon persons who do note natty estimate its
value and who are Indifferent as to its re
sults, it will only serve as a means of piecing
power in the hands of the unprincipled and
ambitious, and must eventuate in the com
plete destruction of that liberty of which it
should be the most powerful conservator. I
have therefore heretofore urged upon your
attention the great danger "to be appre
hended from an untimely extension of the
elective franchise to any now class in our
country, especially when the large majority
of that class, in wielding the power thus
placed in their hands, cannot be expected
correctly to comprehend the duties and re
sponsibilities which pertain to suffrage.
Yesterday, as it were, four millions of per
sons were held Ina condition of slavery that
had existed for generations; to day they are
freemen, and are assumed by laW to be
citizens. It cannot be presumed, from their
previous condition of servitude, that, as a
class, they are as well Informed as to the
nature 01 our Government as the intelligent
foreigner who makes our land the home of
his choice. Iu the case of the latter, neither a
residence of five years, and the k nowledgeof
our institutions which it gives, nor attach
ment to the principles of the Constitution,
are the only conditions upon which he can
be admitted to citizenship. lie mint prove,
in addition, a good moral character, and
thus give reasonable ground for the belief
that ho will be laithful to the obligations
which he assumes as a citizen of the Repub
lic.. Where a people—the source of all politi
cal power—speak, by their suf f rages,
through the instrumentality of the ballot -
box, it must be carefully guarded against
the control of those who are corrupt in
principle and enemies of free institutions,
for it can only become to our political
and social system a safe conductor of
healthy popular sentiment when kept
free from demoralizing influences. Con
trolled, through fraud and usurpa
tion, by the designing, anarchy and des
potism must inevitably follow. In the
hands of the patriotic and worthy, our tiov
eminent will be preserved upon the prin
ciples of the Constitution inherited from our
fathers. It follows, therefore, that in ad
mitting to the ballot box a new class of
voters not qualified for the exercise of the
elective franchise, we weaken our system
of government, instead of adding to Its
strength and durability." "I yield to no
one in attachment to that rule of general
suffrage which distinguishes our policy as
a nation. But there is a limit, wisely ob
served hitherto, which makes the ballot a
privilege and a trust, and which requires of
some classes a time suitable for probation
and preparation. To give it indiscrimin
ately to a new class, wholly unprepared, by
previous Maths and opportunities, to per-
I form the trust which it demands ' is to de
grade it, and finally to destroy its power;
for it may be safely assumed that no po
liticallitruth is better established than that
such indiscriminate and all-embracing ex
tension of popular suffrage must end at lust
In Its overthrow and destruction."
I repeat the expression of illy willingness
to join in any plan within the scope of our
constitutional authority which promises to
better the condition of the negroes In the
South, by encouraging them In industry,
enlightening their minds, improving their
morals, 111101 giving protection to all their
Just rights as freedmen. But the transfer of
our political inheritance to them would,
lily
which) lo
we il, be
awe .
o ti 1(.
to 11,t,,)
utoutory fduty,
fathers and the rights of our children.
The plan of putting the Southern States
wholly, and the General Government par
tially, into the hands of negroes, is proposed
at it time peculiarly unpropitious. The
foundations of society have been broken up
by civil war. Industry must be reorganiz
ed, justice re-established, public credit
maintained, and order brought out of con
fusion. To accomplish these ends would
require all the wisdom and virtue of the
great men who formed our institutions
originally, I confidently believe that their
descendants will be equal to the arduous
task before them, but it is worse than mad
ness to expect that negroes will perform it
for its. Certainly we ought not toted( their
assistance until wk..lespair of our own com
petency. . .
The - great difference between the two
races in physical, mental, and moral char
acteristics will prevent an amalgamation
or fusion of them together in one homo..re•
) 2ous mass. If the inferior obtains the as
cendency over the other, it will govern with
reference only to its own interests—for it
will recognize no common interest—and
create suco a tyranny as this continent has
never yet witnessed. Already the negroes
are influenced by promises of confiscation
and plunder. They are taught to regard is
an enemy every white man who hats any
respect for the rights of his own race. If
this continues, it must become worse and
worse, until all order will be subverted, all
industry cease, and the fertile fields of the
South grow up into a wilderness. °fall the
dangers which our nation has yet encoun
tered, none are equal to those which must
result front the success of the effort now
making to Africanize the half of our
country.
I would not put considerations of money
in competition with justice and right.
lint the expenses incident to " recon
struction " under the system adopted by
Congress aggravate what I regard as
the intrinsic wrong of the' measure itself.
It has cost uncounted millions already, and
of persisted in will add largely Loth() w,ight
of taxation, already too oppressive to be
borne without just complaint, and may fi
nally reduce the Treasury of the nation to a
condition of bankruptcy. We must not de
lude ourselves. It will require a strong
standing army, and probably more than
two hundred millions of dollars per annum,
to maintain the supremacy of negro gov
ernments after they are established. Thu
sum thus thrown away would, if properly
used, form a sinking fund large enough to
pay the whole national debt in less than
fifteen years. It is vain to hope that negroes
will maintain their ascendency themselves.
Without military power they are wholly
incapable of holding in subjection the while
people of the South
I submit to the judgment of Congress
whether the public credit may not be in
juriously alrecied by a system of measures
like this. With our 'debt, and the vast pri
vate interests which are complicated with
it, we cannot be too cautious of a policy
which might, by possibility, impair the con
fidence of the world in our Government.
That confidence can only be retained by
carefully inculcating t he principles ofj ustice
and honor on the popular mind, and by the
most scrupulous fidelity to all our engage
ments of every sort. Ally serious breach
of the organic law, persisted in for a con
siderable time, cannot but create fears fur
the stability of our institutions. Habitual
violation of prescribed rules, which we
bind ourselves to observe, must demoralize
the people. Our only standard of civil duty
being set at naught, the sheet-anchor of our
political morality is lost, the public con
science swings from its moorings, and yields
to every impulse of passion and interest.—
If we repudiate the Constitution, we will
not be expected to care much for mere
pecuniary obligations. The violation of
such a pledge an we made on the 22d day of
July, 1561, will assuredly diminish the
market value of our other promises. Be
sides, if we now acknowledge that the Na
tional debt was created, not to hold the
States in the Union, as the tax-payers wore
led to suppose, but to expel them from it
and hand them over to be governed by ne
groes,
the moral duty to pay it may seem
much less clear. I say it may a cent so ; for
I do not admit that this or any other argu
ment in favor of repudiation can be enter
tained us sound ; but its influence on some
classes of minds may well be apprehended.
The financial honor of it great commercial
nation, largely indebted, and with a repub
lican form of government administered by
agents of the popular choice, is a thing of
such delicate texture, and the destruction
of it would be followed by such unspeak
able calamity, that every true patriot must
desire to avoid whatever might expose it to
the slightest danger.
The great interests of the country require
immediate relief from these enactments.
Business in the South is
_paralyzed by a
sense of general insecurity, by the terror of
confiscation, and the (Ire. d of negro supre
macy. The Southern trade, from which the
North would have derived so great a profit
under a government of law, still languishes,
and can never be revived until it ceases to
be fettered by the arbitrary power which
makes all its operations unsafe. That rich
country—the richest IEI natural resources
the world ever saw—is worse then lost If it
be not soon placed under the protection of
a free Constitution. Instead of beingras it
ought to be, a source of wealth and power,
it will become an intolerable burden upon
the rest of the nation.
Another reason for retracing our steps
will doubtless he seen by Congress In the
late manifestations of public opinion upon
this subject. We live in a country where
the popular will always enforces obedience
to Itself, sooner or later. It is vain to think
of opposing it with anything short of legal
authority, backed by overwhelming force.
It cannot have escaped your attention that
from the day on which Congress fairly and
formally presented the proposition to govern
the Southern States by military force, with
a view to the ultimate establishment of
negro supremacy, every expression of the
general sentiment has been more or less
adverse to it. The affections of this genera
lion cannot be detached from the institu
tions of - their ancestors. Their determina
tion to preserve the inheritance of free
government in their own hands, and trans
mit it undivided and unimpaired to their
own posterity,is too strong to be successfully
opposed. Every weaker passion will dis
appear before that love of liberty and law
for which the American People are distin
guished above all others in the world.
How far the duty of the President, " to
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu
tion," requires him to go in opposing an
unconstitutional act of Congress, is a very
serious and important question, on which I
have deliberated much, and felt extremely
anxious to reach a proper conclusion. Where
an act has been passed according to the
forms of the Constitution by the supreme
legislative authority, and Is regularly ela.
rolled among the public statutes of the
country, Executive resistance to it, 'esPe
chilly in times of high party epitlzipant,