Franklin Repository

The serious diversity of sentiment prevailing in the councils of the Republican members of Congress, on the question of reconstruction, is justly exciting grave apprehensions in the public mind; and as but thirty days remain for the present Congress to act, the people are compelled most reluctantly to accept the postponement of reconstruction to the 40th Congress. The mere delay is in itself of little moment; but the fact that after two years of earnest effort, no common platform for the restoration of the rebellious States has been harmoniously devised, naturally casts doubt and uncertainty upon the future. Mr. Stevens was compelled to move to table his own bill last week, and as yet there is no substitute that promises to marshal greater strength. If the differences related to mere matters of detail, they could be easily reconciled; but the debate on Mr. Stevens' bill developed the most radical antagonism among the Republican members, which cannot be readily compromised. While one portion of the House resisted it because it was too radical, others opposed it with equal earnestness because it was too liberal, and between the two it could not but fail.

Mr. Stevens' bill having failed, what next? Had the Southern States accepted the constitutional amendments, the solution of the whole problem would be comparatively easy. The faith of the nation was plighted by the ruling power, that compliance with those amendments in good faith and in all respects would entitle the excluded States to admission; but the fact that terms so magnanimous have been rejected with one accord by those who committed the crime of causeless rebellion is a grave admonition to the nation that its peace, safety and even its perpetuity demand some sterner adjustment. What it shall be, is for Congress to determine. The man chosen by a loyal people to the Vice Presidency, and called to the execution of this great task by treason's crowning hate, has proved false to his highest and holiest duties, and upon the Representatives of the people devolves the work of reconstruction.

Considering that outside of Congress there is no trusted aid in the restoration of the rebellious States, in the other branches of the government, does not every dictate of patriotism demand speedy harmony in Congress? The longer this question is delayed, the more difficult will be its solution; and if delayed another year for want of a fixed and just policy, it is within the range of probability that the struggle will be protracted beyond another Presidential election, with treason steadily growing more and more defiant and the breach between the two sections still widening. Such delay would be most perilous alike to the nation and to the great issues decided by the war. The faithless men of the north, who have ever been ready to make common cause with treason, would be strengthened in their efforts, and with them would be strengthened also the deadly foes of free government in the South. From being criminals they would appear as dictators of their own destiny and rulers of the government they sought to destroy, and the great struggles of 1865-6 would have to be fought over again by the people.

We do not pretend to say wherein Congress is in error as to the policy of reconstruction. Of that the members who have to discharge this duty are the best judges; but we cannot too strongly impress upon them the necessity of early and decisive action. First of all they must meet on some common platform of adjustment--one on which all loyal Representatives can stand--so that they can rely upon perfecting their work regardless of perfidy elsewhere. If Mr. Stevens' bill is defective, let some one produce a better one, and let the author of each policy bear in mind that in this wide diversity of sentiment there must be concession--not the compromise of right with wrong, nor the compromise of the loyal power of the nation with unrepentant traitors--but such concessions between faithful men as will preserve the substance of the logical results of the war. To this end we invoke the aid of every Republican Senator and Representative. It is their work to perform, and exclusively their work; and they must do it under all circumstances, with a singleness of purpose looking to impartial Justice and enduring Freedom.

An old and ever loyal citizen of Virginia, who once resided in this place, gives the following portrait of affairs in Virginia:

The South is not only broken down and destitute, but apart from the deleterious effects of Johnson's policy, its incorrigible perversity of spirit, retarded a tendency towards healthy, recuperative reconstruction; but since Johnson's apostasy from, and direct antagonism to, Republican principles, that perversity among rebels, because encouraged by the omnipotence of Presidential influence, has grown into such fixed and determined, implacable hatred of radicalism, that, instead of promoting harmonizing results, its developments indicate a purpose, on the part of rebels, to encourage disaffection, foment the elements of discord, and thus, if possible, make more insuperable the barriers to a national compromise.

Our national representatives alone are worthy of the confidence of the nation. To their vigilance, wisdom and energy, under God, do we owe the glorious ameliorative and reformatory results of the war. And now after their sublime achievements, that an apostate President should basely interpose his executive authority, to overthrow the structure of national glory they reared, is not only intolerable, but a crying insult to the national honor and a wanton outrage of the national confidence. Southern loyalists have been sadly dishearted by the vast multitudes in the North who, by their votes, gave utterances of opposition to the wise and just measures of our national councils. Ah! thought we, the wisest of men will err, if deficient in the advantages of an experimental education. Had they had my advantages of observation for the last forty-four years, how differently would they have thought, felt and acted. How indignantly would they have spurned favoritism or political affiliation with the rebels. But ignorant of the real character of Southern oligarchists they, in their blindness, have been "led like sheep to the slaughter," yet, we fear, not as innocently. We can make no other inference from their conduct, than that their preferment of Southern rebels and their domestic institutions, was so strong as to make them willing to sacrifice Southern loyalists and the great interests of the Union in its maintenance. I mourn over and am ashamed to contemplate, that character of that portion of the North that has contributed its political influence to sanction the apostasy of the Executive, and to commend his betrayal of the sincere confidence and buoyant hopes of the national party which, by their votes, honored him with his position. Was ever treason as black as his? Neither Judas, nor Arnold, was characterized by the infamy of betraying their cause after the consummation of its utmost triumphs. Nay, both these acted under the mitigating doubt of its final success. But Johnson, after he held the scepter of acknowledged conquest in his grasp, and was looked up to by his exultant votaries, with the hope that he would crown their loyal wishes by his sincere adherence to the policy of the Union party, as indicated by its loyal representatives, in a manner that puts the claims of the rivals at defiance, renounces his devoted friends, and recreantly assumes the advocacy of the rebel miscreants who, at the close of the war, he had with so much embittered vehemence denounced.

To show you the baseness of his character, I will give you a short chapter of his dealing against me as Postmaster. Soon after the surrender a floating rumor proclaimed me Postmaster. The rebels anticipating this, as they knew me to be the only eligible loyalist in town, and alarmed at the probability of its truth, immediately formed a league against me to prevent, if possible, the certainty of my getting the office, and to secure it for a drunken rebel. To effect this they got up a secret petition, and even had the address through flatteries and festive entertainments, to secure the signatures of the Union officers quartered here, to aid their treacherous designs against me. But firmly apprised of their movements, I gave immediate information of them to the Postmaster General, whereupon Gen. Curtin was dispatched to investigate their conduct, who arrested and took them to headquarters, where they were adequately punished. Thus, in this instance, did I see my enemies signally overthrown. The February following, a young Confederate Colonel, yet wearing his faded military laurels, undertook, by a violent assault upon my aged person, while at my post of duty in my office and without any provocation, to revenge himself and party upon me for my success in getting the office. But he "caught a Tartar," for I overthrew the proud champion in less time than David achieved his feat over the Philistine, and that to his own satisfaction and the dismay of his supporters, some fifteen or twenty of whom were present. This, however, made them only more determined in their future opposition, for nothing short of my ruin was their aim. Hence, having heard me express some sentiments of opposition to the policy of Johnson, they, to gratify their malignant revenge, availed themselves of this and reported me to the Postmaster General, as an ultra radical, and, favored by Johnson's recreancy, they thus, by a secret petition, secured my removal. The persons concerned in this plot claim to be Christians, yet the deed, because based in pure rebel malice against me as a loyalist, was an instance of villainous robbery. Yet all this was done to me and mine by these monsters, aided by the omnipotent influence of Johnson, the prince of traitors, without whose traitorous complicity they could not have accomplished their purposes, and who, by loyal men in the South, is the most detested of all creatures. He is a reproachful caricature to the name of man, and his traitorous recreancy will make the blackest stain on the pages of our country's history. Arnold's and Burr's will acquire light from the contrast with his. I wrote to the President, to the Postmaster General, the Auditor, and to members of Congress on the subject, and it is the general belief that I will again get the office. Since I lost the office the salary has been considerably increased.