THE GREAT CAMPAIGN OF 66
The President has returned from the stump. The Congressional and State
nominations are generally made. The platforms are built, and the great political campaign
of 1866 has fairly opened. The issue is plainly presented, and most unfortunately it is an
issue between the President and the Congress, which were both elected by the Union party.
But it is a difference which we must accept, for we can neither arbitrate nor avoid it.At the ensuing elections we must
choose between two parties. One, under the plea of the equality of States, asserts that a
State or a combination of States may renounce its common powers in the Union, may withdraw
from Congress, wage war upon the Union, and then at its own pleasure, and in absolute
disregard of the fundamental changes wrought in the Constitution by the war, may of
"continuing right," resume all its national relations without any other than a
technical inquiry upon the part of faithful States and citizens. This is the platform of
the Johnson Philadelphia Convention. It is a principle which totally invalidates every
step toward restoration which has been already taken, and forbids any security for the
future. Upon such a theory the Emancipation Amendment may be repudiated, the Confederate
debt resumed, and the Acts of Secession remain upon State statute-books as merely
inoperative laws. The party of this policy is a coalition composed chiefly of the
Democratic party, upon which, in September, 1864, at Auburn, Mr. Seward charged the
calamity of attempted disunion of those whose conspiracy against the Union was defeated
after a terrible war; and of a large body of office-holders under the Administration.
To this coalition stands opposed the
Union party. It has vindicated popular government without vengeance. It has abolished
slavery; and it demands that the change wrought in the Constitution by emancipation
prejudicial to the equality of the loyal States in Congress shall be acknowledged by the
late insurgent States before they resume their full national relations. This party is
composed of the vast body of those at the North who sincerely supported the war, and of
all those at the South, of every color, voters or not voters, who stood true to the Union
with Andrew Johnson through fire and flood, whose hearts have not changed, and whom the
late rebels at the South and the new friends of the President at the North now denounce as
cowards, sneaks, and traitors.
If this party, with its record, its
principles, and the character of its adherents, seems to any honest man inimical to the
authority of law and the maintenance of order, he will, in seeking order and law, vote to
intrust the Government to those who took up arms to avenge a constitutional defeat at the
polls and to those who sympathized with them. But if he believes that the speedy,
prosperous, and permanent restoration of the Union will be delayed if the lately insurgent
States, in their present inflamed condition, are restored with increased power, he will
vote to confide the Government of the State and the country to those who will patiently
and firmly require the adoption of the Constitutional amendment.
The defeated States accepted the
Presidents terms because of the moral weight of the united opinion of the loyal
States that supported them. They will accept the honorable and legitimate completion of
those terms if we remain united. The whole country has seen with how instant and sincere
and universal a welcome Tennessee was restored. But they seem to us strangely to
misunderstand the character or purpose of the American people who fought the war to its
end, who suppose that, profound and earnest as is their desire of restoration of the
Union, they will buy it at the cost of plain injustice to patriotic States and utter
betrayal of faithful citizens. They stood fast under the tremendous pressure of 64;
they are not less clear-sighted and stout-hearted in the angry storm of 66.
Articles Related to the Initial Impeachment
Discussions:
The President Judged by Himself
August 25, 1866, page 530
Reconstruction and How
it Works (cartoon)
September 1, 1866, pages 552-553
Which Is The More
Illegal (cartoon)
September 8, 1866, page 569
The New Orleans Report
October 20, 1866, page 658
The New Orleans Massacre
IMarch 30, 1867, page 202
Text from Illustration of Andys Trip
October 27, 1866, pages 680-681
The Great Campaign of
66
September 29, 1866, page 610
What Next?
October 27, 1866, page 674
King Andy (cartoon)
November 3, 1866 page 696
Shall the President be
Impeached?
November 3, 1866, page 690
The Popular Will
November 24, 1866, page 738
Andy Makes a Call on
Uncle Sam, Who Rises to the Occasion (cartoon)
December 1, 1866, page 768
Impeachment and General
Butler
December 15, 1866, page 786
Congress
December 22, 1866, page 803
What Next?
December 29, 1866, page 818
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