AMERICA.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 263, 21 May 1866, Page 2

AMERICA.

Matters have been brought to a crisis between the President and the Eadicals. Mr Johnson has vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, a measure which, under the ostensible purpose of making provision for the negroes, would in effect have placed most of the Southern States under a military law overriding their own civil authorities, The President's Message announcing the veto was brought into the Senate on the 19th of February by the Vice-President, and read by the clerk amid evidences of intense feeling on the part of senators and members of the House, as well as spectators in the gal- ' leries, but without any open manifestation, except at the close of the reading, when, it is stated, applause was heard, mingled with determined hisses, and the emphatic blows of. the Vice- President's hammer. The Message is a very able document. Mr Johnson declares that he has the strongest desire to "secure to the freedmen' the full enjoyment of their freedom and their property, and their entire* independence and equality in making contracts for their labor." But, he adds — the bill contains provisions which are not warranted by the constitution, and are not well suited to accomplish the end in view. He objects to the immense powers proposed to be conferred upon the agents of the Bureau: "the exercise of power, over which theje is no legal supervision, by so vast a number of agents as is contemplated by the bill must, by the very nature of man, be attended by acts of caprice, injustice, and passion."- Trial by jury appeals to a superior court, every protection heretofore afforded to every citizen is to be set aside, and the decisions of a court-martial are to be final and absolute. Such powers as the bill gives the President ought never, Mr Johnson thinks, to be conferred upon any one man, and they could only be justified by the nation being in a state of war. On the following day, the 20th, the bill, with the veto appended to it, was discussed in the Senate, which was crowded with excited spectators. Outside there were hundreds of persons of both sexe vainly endeavoring to secure a post of observation of the scene and sending innumerable cards to their sensational friends, with a request that they would aid them hi their extremity. Soon after the commencement of the proceedings, Mr "Wade proposed a constitutional amendment rendering any .President ineligible for re-election after serving one term. "This," says the Herald "although the proposer said it . had long been oil his mind, was apparently aimed at Mr Johnson, in return for his vote, as Mr Wade, in a speech of

some length which lie made in support, animadverted severely on the President's reconstruction policy, saying it was one that suited every rebel, Copperhead, and enemy of the government, and was no better than treason itself. At one o'clock the Freedinen's Bureau Bill came up in regular order, on the question whether it should be passed over the veto, when Mr Garratt Davis took the floor and delivered another speech of considerable length in opposition to it. He was succeeded by Senator Trumbull in a long address, eulogistic of the proposed measure and condemnatory of the President's action ; after which, amidst profound silence and great anxiety, the question was taken, when it was found that the bill had failed to pass over the veto by a two-thirds majority, there being only 30 votes in the affirmative to 19 in the negative.' The announcement of this result, adds the Herald, was followed by tremendous applause in the galleries.

Meetings were held throughout the United States, on February 22nd, Washington's birthday, to support President Johnson's policy. The meeting held at Washington passed resolutions commending Mr Johnson's course. The meeting then adjourned to White House, where the President addressed an immense concourse of people. He reiterated the announcement that he would pursue the policy declared in his veto message. The Union, he was resolved upon, should be preserved. He stood where he did at the commencement of the rebellion, to vindicate the Union a»d the constitution against disunionists from the North or South. On assuming ofSce he found 8,000,000 people who were, in fact, condemned under the law — the penalty being death ; but he would say, let the leaders, conscious and intelligent traitors, suffer the penalty of the law ; but for the masses leniency, trust, and confidence. The South struggled to destroy the government, but before the war is hardly over the country finds itself in the midst of another rebellion. War was made to prevent a separation of the States ; now there is an attempt to concentrate the power of government in the hands of a few, thereby bringing about a consolidation equally dangerous and objectionable with separation. He denounced the appointment of a Congressional Committee to decide the claims of the Southern States to representation : —

" The executive military (he said power and public judgment have decided that no State has power or the right to go out of the Union, and you turn round and assume that they are out and shall not come in. lam not prepared to take any such position. I have found treason at the South, and now when I turn to the other end of the line I find men still opposing the restoration of the Union." President Johnson, replying to the call for their names, said : — " I regard them, as President or citizen, as being equally opposed to the fundamental principles of this government, and believe they are as much laboring. to prevent or destroy them as were those who fought against us. Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Slimmer, Wendeli Phillips, and others of the same trib*. are amongst them. They may v.lt,. ;;;.-•;• ate, traduce, slander me ; that does f r -■-. Lleet me. I do not intend to be

■ •vr.: v vd by friends, nor bullied by enemies. It has been said, in high places, if such usurpation had been exercised two centuries ago it would have cost a certain individual his head. The usurpation I have been guilty of has been standing between the people and the encroachments of power. In connection with this subject, the same gentleman explained we were standing in the midst of earthquakes ; he trembled and could not yield. Yes, there is an earthquake coining; there is a ground swell of popular judgment and indignation. When lam beheaded I want the people to witness it. Ido not want it done by inuendos and indirect remarks in high places to be suggested to men having assassination breeding in their bosoms. Others explain this Presidental obstacle must be gotten out of the way. What is that, if X may make use of a strong term, but inciting assassination ? Are those who want to destroy our institutions and change the character of our government not satisfied with the blood already shed f They have not the honor or the courage to obtain their ends otherwise than by assassins' hands. I knew they are willing to wound, but they fear to strike. If my blooc is to be shed because I vindicate the Union and the preservation of the government in its purity, let it be shed ; let the opponents of the government remember that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. The Union will grow and continue to increase in strength and power, though it may be cemented and cleansed with blood."